


But you are my Happily Ever After

by Skylarium_Rose



Series: Princely Matters [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam (Voltron) Lives, Allura & Lance (Voltron) are Siblings, Altean Lance (Voltron), Altean Prince Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Castle of Lions (Voltron) Was Not Destroyed, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Epic Shance Romance, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, Happy Ending for All!, Learning earth culture, Like HELL am I going to keep that ending!, M/M, Meeting the Parents, Missing Scenes, Sentient Voltron Lions, Team Voltron Family, season 8 fix-it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2019-08-25 04:14:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 52,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16654063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylarium_Rose/pseuds/Skylarium_Rose
Summary: The battlefields of war are ever changing and as they travel back to the planet where it all started for his team and his start as Paladin of the Blue Lion. And in these finally days of the War Lance learns how much he is willing to sacrifice for his friends and family and that he would so each and every time.Stories of Altean Lance as he gains new friends and enemies in the end of the war and helps save the universe while keeping everyone he loves safe.





	1. You are the fair Prince to my noble Paladin

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I'm so creative I made a full sentence, yahoo.
> 
> I think it's cute okay, please don't judge.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He just had to touch him, feel him, know his body all over. He needed to know he was alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Season 8 Response) ........ AAAAAHHHHHHHHH! 
> 
> Now that I am done screaming into the abyss in sadness I have this to say. I love this show and I always will, but I wasn't to thrilled with the ending and I felt like more episodes would have made this thriller season more frightening, but that's just me. Also the fun and filler episodes were the shining light in this season, where there was amazing growth and we got to see more of the characters we love and their fantastic traits and people were redeemed. All the music and action scenes were so phenomenal that I can't even begin to describe how much I love the art department. Like my girl Atlas, always amazing especially with the Voltron team up. All the giant robots!!!
> 
> But in the end the story really did hurt me. Somethings felt too easy or rushed (more eps needed) and I wish there was another way that Allura was able to see what she did — that she didn't have to leave for the amazing things to happen in the universe. She did deserve better after everything and while I'll be pissed and reading fanfic forever to curb that, the show as a whole was so so well done and I will miss it dearly.
> 
> In other news, have some fluffy smut ya'll have all been waiting for since the beginning of this story to soothe you hurting hearts.

_Had kissing always felt this good?_

Shiro wonders as he shudders as Lance continues to devour his lips in a bruising kiss.

Shiro knew he was somewhat touched-starved, but he didn't think it would effect him in such a big way. Pats on the back and friendly hugs were fine, but more than that had been too much for him to even think about. It had been so long that he wasn't sure how to initiate something in a romantic way. Until Lance came along stealing kisses in the hallway and looking so adorable that Shiro just had to touch. And when he did it was like everything else bleed away and Shiro was drowning, and he wanted it. But the _want_ to be touched and then falling prey to its siren call had gotten him in trouble a few times, like when Lance provoked him in the kitchen and later when he told Shiro he loved him for the first time. He just got sweep up in the tsunami that was the Altean prince and couldn't be worried by anything else. But now he didn't need to with them locked away in Lance's room.

"I want you."

It takes a second to realizes that wasn't a thought, but Lance actually saying that to him. 

"Yes."

He barely leans away from Lance as he goes to unlatch the chest plating and realize that he is distinctly without one limb.

_As if it was ever really mine._

Dropping his hand Shiro looks up to see a melancholy look grace Lance's face and he's goes to unlatch the chest plate and helps him remove his gauntlet and upper body armor, walking it over to set down on the low table across the room.

"I guess I've ruined the moment." Shiro chuckles hollowly, feeling like crawling into a hole and staying there for the whole two weeks.

“No,” Shiro's head whips around to Lance and can only see him gazing back softly as he walks back towards him, “I was told once that enjoyment is the most important and if they're a few stalled moments or some laughs along the way it's fine.”

“Because you're doing something right?" Shiro ventures and gets a soft smile from Lance.

“Exactly.”

Shiro is lead to the couch and gets rid of the rest of his armor and is left in only his suit and hearing the sound of Lance unzipping the back of his undersuit has Shiro looking up from where he just remove his other boot. He tries to reason with himself, but he can't look away from the show that Lance puts on as he gets out of his suit. Though what he sees pulls a gasp from his lips. Lance freezes, but Shiro can see enough and slowly approaches his motionless boyfriend.

Faint, but dark brown lichtenberg marks travel up both arms spanning out and ending on the back of his broad shoulders, the left higher than the right with only some of the thinner shorter marks almost touching each other. Surprisingly, Shiro sees that Lance's regular marks are virtual untouched by the branching patterns as he lightly trails his fingers down from his shoulder to around one of the entry wounds, never touching it though.

“It – It was from the omega shield mission. It would have hit Allura and I couldn't — ” Lance tries to explain.

“I know. I know," Shiro tells him quietly as he leans his head down on his shoulder and rest his hand on Lance's hip.

Shiro doesn't tell him how he heard Black roaring about lost. How they told Shiro they thought Lance was dying and Red might not be able to save him like Black had done for him. He didn't tell him how he screamed in grief and felt the like the world had fallen out from underneath him again or how he felt relief beyond description when Black told him Lance was alright and safe.

"I just didn't realize the hit did this." He sighs as he leans down to kiss just above the right one.

"Yeah, pretty ugly." Lance whispers as he hugs himself.

"No. Beautiful."

Lance turns in his hold and Shiro moves his hand to let his thumb trace lightly over his cheek.

"You always tell me my scars on my skin and my mind are reminders, good and bad, of how I've not only survived, but overcome everything that tried to destroy me. How I _am_ stronger for it. Yours are the same too and I would be blind and a hypocrite to think that these made you ugly." Shiro tells him and even goes to move what is left of his right arm, “I don't care Lance.”

"I'm sorry. You went through —"

"Hey, everyone goes through things differently. I'm not mad, far from it."

No sooner had he said that they were kissing again with Lance unzipping the back of the suit as well. In the second after Shiro is leaning back in shock as his center of gravity is altered suddenly. Trying to find his balance Shiro wraps his legs around Lance's tapered waist and grabs hold of his shoulder. He looks down at Lance, who is just smirking up at him like he hasn’t just turn Shiro’s world upside down and all his concerns from before disappear quickly. No one he had been with was able to do that and the subtle strength of it all was tickling something deep in Shiro he didn't know he ever wanted, but was very much enjoying.

"Don't worry I have you."

"I know you do."

Lance smoothly walks to his bed and surprises Shiro again with easily holding him and kneeling onto the bed where he gently lays him down. As Lance hovers over him and gazes down at him with so much adoration Shiro feels like all his blood is rushing to his face as he swallows, letting out a ragged breath at feeling more vulnerable then he ever had before. And as Lance leans in to kiss him, for once he doesn’t miss the control.

"I miss this."

"I did too. I'm so glad that I'm back," Shiro sighs into the kiss," So happy."

So happy that he's sure words couldn't even describe it as warm hands cup his face as he gently slides them over his skin, prickling it pleasantly at the simple, but intimate touch. And as Lance tilts his head up more for his soft, sweet, and intoxicating kisses Shiro could only just manage to keep up and above the tsunami.

Coming up for air Shiro smiles and he knows it look a little dopey, but he really is in love again and he's going to fight for it this time.

"Lance. I know not everything is figured out and we have a lot to still do before we can drop these titles, but when that happens I do want you to still be there. With me.” 

Lance runs his fingers through his hair as he bends down to kiss his forehead, "I want to be there too.”   

Relief circulates through him as more stress just slides off him as he whispers, “I – I'm so glad you want me.” 

 

Lance blinks at the words and glances down at Shiro in surprise.

"What?"

Shiro looks surprise too before turning away, probably not realizing he said it out loud or thinking he said it quietly enough.

"Shiro?"

"It's silly really," And Lance waits not rushing him at all, "I never really cared until I started liking you, that, that after everything that I've been through... no one would want me, but you —" 

“Of course I want you!" Lance exclaims, "You are my knight – my Paladin in battered armor and I love you all the same. No matter what. And I mean it."  

Shiro turns back to him and looks like he believes him, but Lance can still see some trepidation and doubt.

"I love you Takashi Shirogane and all your scars. You prove everyquintant that you aren't broken and you're stronger than you ever thought and its so beautiful. I love you so much because you never stop fighting or working to make sure everyone is okay. How you trust me with both your good and bad quintants. And how you just love me for me."

Shiro cards his fingers through his hair and Lance leans into the loving touch.

"Will you love me and all my faults?”

“They're not faults, but yes," Shiro says lightly, "In a heartbeat and all the ones after that. I love you too Lance.”

Lance smiles brightly at his admission only to look down shyly as he asks something important for their relationship.

“I know you said that it was supposed to be something special, but, but can I call you Takashi. I won't do it in public so there's no favoritism, but alone —" And as he looks back at Shiro he is instantly given his answer by the hunger look in Shiro’s darken eyes. 

“Please," Shiro breathes desperately, "I – Yes.”

“Okay," Lance whispers feeling emboldened, "Lay back. I want to make you feel good. Alright?"

As he does Lance thinks of what to do first as he peels the suit off and kisses down Shiro's body. He hadn't had the whole experience, but with his need to please he had asked Ezl to show him the ropes of what he was comfortable with. He didn't want to be a mess after they got married and Ezl was sweet and patient enough with him to show him.

And now he had someone he was so ready to lavish those skills on.

As he gets to his hip Lance indulges and lick a strike up where his thigh and pelvis meet grining lasciviously as Shiro's hip jumps and he groans. Pulling more of the suit down, Shiro's modesty is only covered by thin underclothes and the impressive outline of his cock checks off all the boxes of what Lance had been fantasizing about for phoebs. Bending down the few h’qells left he mouths at Shiro's arousal. They both moan, Shiro at the hot touch and Lance when he feels it twitch and grows more full at his attention.

“I can't wait.” He whispers, sounding unbelievably lewd to even himself and grins at the throaty groan Shiro gives at his excitement.

Divesting Shiro of the rest of his space suit and then his underclothes Lance kisses up his legs, alternately between the two, nipping at every bit of skin he could and kissing at every scar he sees.

“Oh! Lance!”

Lance might do more than nip at Shiro's left leg at hearing him moan his name and soothe it with a flurry of kisses as he goes over the now flexing muscles. Knowing he's doing this to their infallible leader does something to him, along with the thought that Shiro was now his.

“Lance.”

He looks up and sees the glazed desire in Shiro's eyes, his face relax with want and his labor breathing, so instead of crawling back over this glorious man to kiss those sinfully pink lips Lance lays down comfortably in between Shiro's muscular legs and confidently wraps his hand around him. Lance moves his hand up and down at an even pace as he watches Shiro happily unravel. With a twist in his wrist and rubbing slow, concise circles with his thumb over the head of his cock he sees Shiro bite his lip, trying to keep quiet as Lance continues his ministrations.

Licking his lips Lance closes his over the weeping head before moving off to mouth and lick at the sides, covering half of this gorgeous cock with spit so he could easily sink down. He moves back to the head were beads of pre-come are starting to pool again. Lance dives in swirling his tongue over the head and lapping it up, even dipping his tongue into the sensitive slit just to hear Shiro moan again. Done toying for now Lance starts to move up and down slowly as he finds his rhythm and falls deeper into the sense of love and lust. He enjoys how Shiro's eyes are almost misty as he watches, looking wretched when they had only started. Lance wishes he could tell him how good it feels to have this velvety heaviness on his tongue, how good he tastes, how all of this made him wish for more. Looking up Lance smiles around the cock in his mouth at how sweet Shiro was, still being a gentleman and not forcing him down, even going as far as to grab one of the pillows near his head. 

 _Hmm_.  _Maybe next time._

But he's also quiet. Biting his lips or turning his head into his raised arm, trapping his moans inside his throat only whispering praise when he can. And while Lance can appreciate quiet he wants to hear every breathy sigh, high strung whimper, and lovely moan this man has to offer. Lance lays his left hand flat on Shiro's abdomen applying some pressure and getting Shiro's attention as he leans up on his elbow and the rest of his right arm to look down confused. Lance pulls off and quickly rearranges himself to rest his left arm over Shiro's right leg and holds his left leg up slightly as he caresses his thigh.

Lance smiles encouragingly at his man and he is overwhelmed again when Shiro smiles back with that same sweet smile he always gives him. How could he not give him everything when on the receiving side of that smile? Shiro deserves everything. He deserves to feel great and Lance was going to make that happen.

Taking his cock back in his mouth Lance looks deep into Shiro's eyes, never breaking contact, as he goes all the way down to the root until his nose is nestled in the thatch of white hair. The response is immediate with Shiro's eyes widening before rolling up in his head only for Lance to pull up with a hint of teeth that has Shiro dropping back against the pillows moaning out loud and his whole body shaking. Having what he wants Lance starts to work Shiro with all the tricks he knows as he keeps taking all of him into his mouth and down his throat hearing nothing but groans of praise. Slowly going all the way back down Lance exhale through his nose to get himself ready in case Shiro tries to buck and swallows around the girth.

_Quiznak!_

Lance loves how it throbs against the back of his throat adding more of its weight and flaring the desire that warms the lust nestled deep in his belly. Shiro screams his name loudly and full of need making Lance hum in response, vibrations traveling up his throat.

“Please! Lance!” Shiro cries out wetly begging as he reaches for him, hand scrambles against Lance's.

Not done making Shiro feel amazing Lance swallows once more just to hear the punched out moan and whine as Shiro grips his hand in a shaky hold and feels Shiro's muscles ripple under his hands, taut with potential and unable to move at all. It's very invigorating to have that type of power over his lover, but Lance comes up, and when he does he is privy to a beautiful sight.

Shiro is a wet dream with his glistening cock, flushed skin, heaving chest, and blissful tearful expression.  

Languidly sliding up the hard panting body Lance is taken by surprise when he barely drags his hands over those amazing pectoral muscles and he is strong armed into a series of sloppy heated kisses. Lance doesn't care and happily lets Shiro take all the control as he splits his attention between the lovely soft feeling of kissing offset by the roughness of it all. He lets the emotions wash over him as he falls more into the kiss and kneads the wonderful pecs below him and loving how Shiro is pushing out his chest to follows the movements of his hands, trying to catch all the sensations of him stroking the muscles and pinching his nipples. The kisses soon slow to heavy and passionately and Lance takes the chance to lean back so he's sitting right on Shiro's abs, out of his reach for a kiss and from him to grind up on, but perfect for him to keep fondling and teasing Shiro's pecs. In his daze Shiro notices the disappearance and opens his eyes only a bit to look at Lance with a flushed face and half lidded eyes making him look more like a treasure. He pouts as his arm jerkily reaches out to grip Lance's leg and tries to pull him back down as he continues to move under his hands. But he has a question and he wants it answered.

“Did you like that?” Lance asks in a sultry tone.

When Shiro only nods his head viciously Lance tsks as he takes his hands away and smiles impishly at him asking again.

Dazed and moaning Shiro rasps out, “Yes! I liked it.”

And Lance drops his hands down and pinches Shiro’s left nipple as a reward and he trembles lovely underneath him.

“How? I – I thought – thought you couldn't?”

Standing up over him Lance flashes a seductive smile at his partner that has Shiro awestruck. Hooking his thumbs into the rest of the undersuit clinging to his hips he removes it and his underclothes in one gracefully move. Smirking Lance watches Shiro with glee as his gaze becomes hungry again and can’t take his eyes off him as Lance takes his time to sit back over him.

“Hey the rules never said I couldn't practice. Just not to go all the way.” Lance replies suggestively.

"You are unbelievably.” Shiro breathes out with a ragged chuckle at the end.

"I am. And I'm all yours."

"Then come back here."

And leaning over him again goes back in for more of those addictive kisses.

 

Lance had always been a lithe beauty, but now, now he was breathtaking. Gorgeous long legs on full display and not hidden by his jumpsuits that clung to him like a second skin or covered by those damned stockings that hugged his muscles.

Seeing part of them when he had on swim trunks wasn't enough and now it was all his to view. Shiro ran his hand up the expanse of golden brown, feeling the strength and the smoothness of it as Lance finally lays out on him again letting Shiro feel every part of his heated body. Subtlety kneading the softness of Lance's thigh and hip, Shiro spends a moment to love the curves it gave the svelte man and how everything was marvelous. Following the curvature Shiro grasp Lance's perfectly round backside and massage the globe in his hand as he still fights to gets his breathing under control from that otherworldly experience earlier.

Shiro has honestly never had a blowjob like that as his more casual relationships ones wouldn't even try to take his full length making him less likely to even ask with his more serious relationships. He knew he was a bit thicker and longer than average and that could be intimidating, but Lance hadn't cared and gone down on him like a champ and rocked Shiro's world. He sure if Lance had swallowed again he would have come just from that.

But with Lance closer it was his turn to make him feel good.

Just then his arousal spikes again as Lance's lips slides from his and mouth and nips at his Adam's apple. He response is immediate as he smacks Lance's ass before soothing the burn, but the high pitch keen that comes from his lover and how he pushes back into his hand was all he needed.

But Shiro wants to hear it again.

He needs to hear it again.

The sting in his hand felt so nice, captivating to his senses the same as the rush of flying did. As he does it again and again as he kisses up and down Lance's clavicle, the tendons in Lance's neck tighten as he stills from a swat only for him to go slack in the most delicious way as Shiro soothes him and he waits for more. As Lance leans back into his touch Shiro feel his hand travels over most of Lance’s ass and gives him the perfect opportunity to slides a finger down to his hole as an invitation and a question. If Lance wanted to stop he would, but if not then he would spend a fantastic night with the one he loved. Lance makes a surprise squeak before looking down meekly at him.

“Do you want to stop?” He asks gently and bites the inside of his cheek when Lance shakes his head ‘no’ with a fervor.

“If we're going any farther we're going to need a little help.”

Lance takes his hands away from where they were tightly holding on to his shoulders before he glows faintly blue and a orange tube appears between his raised hands.

“Massage oil."

"Handy."

Pushing himself up with his arm, Shiro sits back at a better angle on the mountain of pillows Lance has at the headboard and watches the show of expressions as Lance goes from dominating, making a show of slowly squeezing out the oil to almost immediately submissive as he starts to quietly finger himself.

He worries his lower lip as he starts to, eyes closed in concentration and hips rocking a bit to get a better angle. He was suddenly so quiet, but that didn't last for long after he found his sweet spot. His mouth opens in a soundless moan as he makes a divine o-face before he's pushing down on Shiro's stomach with his left and pushing back on into his right hand. Shiro can't do much more then grip his hip roughly, tight enough to bruise, as he hears the words tumbling from Lance's plush lips.

“It feels so good. It's tight – I only have two fingers in. But feels soo good. I'd make you – Ah! I'd make you feel great. So hot and tight for you. Ancients! Wish – wish your fingers were in me. Quiznak! They – they'd fill me up so, so good.”

_Since he asked so nicely why not make it a reality._

Shiro thinks as he slides his hand back and gently adds a finger watching in delight how as Lance's face goes slack again in a soundless moan.

Slowly moving his finger in and out at a slower pace than the other fingers Shiro takes his time to gently circle and rub the soft muscles, coaxing them to relax as he adds another. The sigh from above has him wanting to press in more, but he knows that Lance isn't ready yet. But after a few more seconds he feels that his fingers are wet enough for him push all the way in leaving Lance shaking and falling forward, just barely catching himself. Shiro used it to his advantage to kiss up Lance's neck and smiling at the reedy whimpering he caused when he dug his teeth into Lance's tendon before soothing it over with a kiss.

“Takashiiii!” He whimpers, thrusting his hips down, trying to get the fingers deeper inside of him.

Drawing away he leans over to trail kisses up his cheek to nip at his ear before wiggling his fingers. Lance whines so loud Shiro is only briefly concerned that they might be heard. Pulling back so their lips can meet again they do so in a messy fervent clash of open mouth and teeth. Shiro takes the time to add another finger along with Lance's other three, joyfully swallowing his moans. At adding his pinkie and thus almost his whole hand Lance breaks away from the kiss with a silent scream as he quakes beautifully against him as every move of his fingers push Lance’s into his sweet spot. Shiro pushes down and up having Lance's fingers press into the bundle of nerves again and Lance collapses forward hiding his face in the crook of his neck and his left hand clutching at the rest of his bicep. Muffle moans fill the room side by side with the squelching noises of the assault Shiro was enacting as he started to spread his fingers.

“What was is that?” Shiro ask playfully as he feels Lance's lips move against his neck.

When all he gets is another whisper Shiro not only removes his fingers, but also grabs hold of Lance's wrist and pulls back. He knows Lance can break his grip, but with him being so far gone now he can use it to his advantage. And from it the most adorable whine is pulled from Lance as he ruts up against his abs trying to get any friction. 

“Lance?” He calls out as he mischievously drags out the vowels in his name.

_Turnabout is fair play._

“I – I – I need more.” He whines demurely looking up with blissfully blown eyes.

“More?” He asks with a smirk.

“Yes! You! I need you!”

“What do you need Kitten?”

“I need your big beautiful dick in me now!” Shiro groans at that feeling himself thicken even more if possible.

"You're going to have to help me if you want it. And you do want it, don't you Kitten?”

“Yes! Yes, Takashi! Yes!"

And the chanting has Shiro smirking as he slaps Lance’s ass again just to hear him moan again.

He watches as Lance trembles as he reaches for the tube he discarded and struggles to squeezes out some extra oil. Reaching out for it Shiro takes it so he can help squeeze out some into Lance's open shaking palm. Lance efficiently slicks him up before he goes to guide himself down.

Shiro’s chest is heaving, eyes dazed as he watches Lance shudders, slipping down further and not letting his eyes leave his. Shiro breathes out noisily, making it louder, something to focus on so he's not shoving himself into the slow encompassing heat that was engulfed his dick. He runs his hand up and down Lance’s leg as comfort to both of them as Lance continues to sink down. Finally, he lets himself drop and lets out a long, drawn-out wail as he settles flush against Shiro’s hips.

That’s his hot swollen girth stretching Lance wide open, making Lance react so beautifully, making him quiver at the feel – the thought of it is pure delirium and Shiro vehemently tries not to fuck up into Lance to hear him cry out his name among other things.

“It's – Ahh…Quiznak! Ahh... Just so  _big_ ,” Lance whines as he circles his hips, “I feel so full.”

Shiro grips his waist harder as he tries not to thrust up into hot tightness or blackout from the dizziness of sensations that assault him. Bringing his legs up to brace against the bed Lance slides down more and the sensations are almost too much and are severely compounded when Lance tightens around him.

“Oh!” 

“Does it hurt?” Shiro asks as he rubs circles into Lance's hip as he tries to blink away his own lightheadedness.

“N-no I – Ah....” Lance tries, but trails off in a set mumbling meaningless sounds that fall from his trembling lips.

Reaching up he takes Lance’s right bicep and pulls on it until Lance brings his hand from where it's been gripping at Shiro's thigh and brings it to his chest, “Here. Place your hands on my chest. And move when you're ready.”

Lance nods as he continues to raggedly catch his breath and places both hands on his chest.

But patience isn't one of Lance's strong suits and he is almost immediately pressing down on his abs to push up before sliding back down, getting higher with each lift. Shiro wants to stop him, but the sensation of it all was burning every nerve, alighting them in a way he had never felt during sex before. The uncoordinated movements soon become more graceful and then everything feels so much more. It's phenomenal and Shiro grips Lance's waist as he anchors himself and just letting the sensations take him over again.

The waves of pleasure crash over him so fast though that he feels like an exposed wire as it becomes almost too much. None of it is bad, it's just so good. Shiro doesn't even notice when he starts crying or when his broken whimpers turned to gasping breathes as he starts to hyperventilate just trying to get his heart under control at Lance's movements. But then the passion slows and the waves come less and less until Shiro opens his eyes to notice Lance not only looking down at him, but holding his face lovingly. 

"Takashi?" He ask in concern.

"Body. New... body," His voice cracks, "It's just, I... I'm sensitive. It's... Ah!"

And all Lance did was wipe away his tears.

"We can stop." Lance tells him softly as he holds himself completely still.

It's a struggle, but Shiro raises his hand from where it feels like it was molded into Lance's side and guides his head down so he can kiss him. It's slow and sweet and has Shiro moaning anyway.

"No... I ...I want this... with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Lance stays bent over him and slowly circles and swiveling his hips, bouncing only so high to easily reignite the passion and drawing it out. Shiro still gasps and arches at his touch, but Lance keeps him ground too, gently kissing his face and holding his hand as he whispers how much he loves him after each kiss. When his orgasm hits its sudden, forceful, and wonderful leaving him brokenly whispering Lance's name like a pray as he holds him through his shaking and drifting in overwhelming warmth and love until everything goes dark.  

 

"Don't fall asleep Shiro." Lance tells him as he rubs the shampoo in with more vigor and watching the suds turn grey.

A half-hearted grunt is Lance's only response as he nuzzles into his neck and makes it impossible to finish what he was doing.

"Takashi?"

And again the same grunt.

_I think I might have fried some brain cells._

Lance smirks to himself at that and continues to work the shampoo in with one hand instead of two in the peaceful silence of his bathroom. But before Lance could wash it out he decides to make himself known, with a kiss to his neck.

"Hey!" Lance giggles and tries to move away, but the hold Shiro has on him keeps him in place.

"How could I not?" He whispers into his neck, "I feel like such a pampered cat. You’re taking such good care of me."

"Am I?" Lance answers playfully looking down at the head of soapy hair.

"Mhmm. You’re washing my hair. You ran this warm bath. Wrapped my arm in this waterproof scarf. And after a really great,  amazing, and mind-blowing first time with you," Each adjective punctuated with a kiss, "you carried me in here after I passed out. I’d say that’s taking fantastic care of me."

Lance feels his cheeks warm, and not from the water. He knew he did that, but when it was pointed out it was kind of embarrassing — in a good way.

"Can you fault me for just relaxing with the best person – best boyfriend ever?"

"You’re just saying that." Lance answers, not sure why he was batting away compliments and instead focuses on creating a small forcefield to create a sizable bubble to wash out the shampoo.

"Because it’s true." Shiro says matter-of-factually.

"Shi–"

"I mean it." Shiro cuts him off softly before leaning back and gazing up at him with with a wistful expression that has Lance holding his tongue.  

"I've seen and heard nothing but amazing things you've been doing and the wonderful person you are. I know about the behind the scene work with Kolivan and the Blades to make the alliance. How you care and are willing to fight to your last breath to defend anyone of us. How you always go out of your way to make other happy and comfortable. You are just so amazing and it boggles my mind how I got so luckily to be with you."

"Taka—" But Shiro shakes his head 'no' and Lance closes his mouth and lets Shiro continue. 

"Lance you are amazing and you don't need to measure up to anything. You've set your own standard and people look up to you. You're intelligent, strong, amazing, and handsome. Like really handsome," Shiro smiles to himself as he leans closer and whispers into his ear, "At the alliance gala you were breathtaking and I couldn't take my eyes off you. And sometimes I wondered if you really know how incredibly handsome you are especially under pressure too, like on Kellös. But nothing and I mean nothing compares to the first memory I have after you brought me back. I don't think I'll ever tire of that smile. You are magnificently perfect the way you are."

The amount of flattery was almost too much, but it was the tone of pure admiration that has Lance losing concentration in favor for listening to the words of love. Sadly his concentration is need for the bubble above of Shiro's head that instantly disappears and splashes on both of them.

"I’m sorry! I —" Lance tries to apologize, but Shiro just laughs his beautifully deep laugh into his neck.

"Don’t ever change. You are so perfect the way you are." He says as he kisses at his shoulder.

They rinses out the rest and Shiro sits up for the first time since Lance got him into the bath only for him to shake out his hair, hitting Lance in the face with the flying water. Screaming Lance raises his hands against the attack and tries to look annoyed once Shiro stops, but he makes his adorable wide-eye expression and Lance can't be angry. Reaching up and carding his fingers through Shiro's now snow white hair Lance is struck again by how Shiro is finally back with him.

"My Starlight."

"Hmm yes. Yours." Shiro sighs as he leans back over to kiss his forehead.

"So suave."

"It’s easy with someone like you."

"Takashi stop it."

"Remember everything I said is true. And the truth is I have a handsome, beautiful, intelligent, and caring prince..." He list off with another kiss to his forehead, then his eyelids, and his nose before finally hovering over his mouth and whispering seductively, "...beneath me."

The switch change from love to lust has Lance leaning back against the tub edge and looking up into Shiro's predatory eyes as he leans over him allowing Lance to see all of his boyfriend in all his sexy glory.

"How could I not want to ravish him constantly, letting him know how much he means to me and how great he is. How I enjoy his body quivering, eyes shimmering with heat, how his touch burns my skin so deliciously just like I want." With each admission he move in closer as he lets the praise easily slip from his lips.

Lance can only stare up in shock as arousal pools in his stomach from the descriptions, "Oh." 

"I only want to hear those wonderful sighs and moans again. Will you let me? Please?" Shiro ask sweetly.

"Yes."

 

After the second round in the tub, which Shiro is starting to love Lance riding him as his favorite – if only position – but the way he moved all sensual and fervid as he bounced in his lap and gripped his thighs tightly for leverage was an incredible experience.

Lance’s breath ghosting over his throat in puffs of hot air as he let out soft mewls and how Lance’s whole body shook when Shiro moved his hand over Lance’s body, kneading his pebbled nipples and sliding his hands down the plane of his almost defined abs. How he had felt himself inside if he just pressed his hand against them just a little firmer – and he didn't think he'd ever growled during sex, but he did then. And at Lance's wanton moaning and begging as they met for a messy kiss Shiro knew that they would be a future thing, as was seeing his eyes closed in ecstasy and open in euphoria after he comes as Shiro is drawn into those deep lavender eyes that are blown wide with only a thin ring of the deepest blue in bliss.

Now finally laying in Lance's massive and plush bed Shiro has to move slightly to finally feel more settled. Sadly this shakes Lance wakes as he tries to lean up and looks around blurrily.

"Hey, I'm sorry Kitten," He reaches up to smooth down his hair, "Go back to sleep."

Lance blinks sleepily at him before yawning and curling back into his left side. Shiro isn't sure were where the nickname came from, but he thinks it's perfect for Lance. And as Lance relaxes Shiro sighs in content as he wraps his arm around him because for the first time in a truly long time he knows he'll sleep well in the arms of someone he deeply loves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note to all, I will be referring back to memories, not often, but ones that Kuro experienced that Shiro can access and feels like he was there. So to him it's like there's no distinction, but he knows he wasn't really there.


	2. Castle Vlog (Pets of the Castle of Lions)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Pet's Parade to the Kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was in needed of something pure and cute.
> 
> And I don't know if I said this, but I'll be updating every Saturday from now on and since I was late y'all are all getting two updates because I was busy this weekend with family festivities.  
> Merry Christmas!

Platt was just sleeping another quintant away when he and his two sleeping passengers are awakened by his grumbling stomach. Chuchule and Chulatt pop off his stomach in surprise and distress until they realize the shaking is coming from underneath them and send Platt a dirty look. He only shrugs in response as he rolls up, dropping both of them onto the large pillow he was resting on. Chuchule and Chulatt sunk in almost immediately and had to quickly scramble off the pillow onto the floor with Platt rolling off behind. They were laying on one of the pillows repossessed from Cosmo's pile that was in the center of the lounge. A small lounge that somehow became a pets' paradise.

But in getting up Chuchule and Chulatt realize that they too were hungry as their little stomachs rumble too. But thankfully Plachu comes sliding out of the permanently open vent with his usual anger eyes sparkling in happiness.

He quickly starts acting out the large creature that A'lanor has and then shivers and then pretends to eat something.

It was the cold cream treat that the happy Paladin made!

They had only had it once before, but after that they weren't given it again and they don't know why. But it was the perfect treat to have, only problem was that they were much to small to open the top part of the cold machine and not strong enough to pull it out. This left the mice with a dilemma of how they would get their forbidden snack. 

Surprisingly, it walked, or floated in. A yellow fluff followed by a green fluff came into their room and settled into their nest of metal and started humming a calming song. With the other pets abilities it would be very easy for them to all get a treat. Chulatt scurries up to the shiny and sharp nest and knocks on the smoothest part she can find. The yellow one, Tesla, stops humming and looks over and Chulatt mimes out what Plachu did and asks if they wanted the container the cream was in. They turn to their green companion and their cheeks blink at each other before turning back nodding in agreement.

Two down. Two to go.

Hitching a ride on them they take them to the others. Apparently the fluffs were escaping the loudness of the crew and coming to the room they left the mice can understand. Opening the door they are hit with a wall of sound as everyone is cheering for something. There is a table in the center of the cleared room with a small long net across it. The new purple lady is on one side with a small paddle and a dangerous look. On the other side was the one arm starlight Paladin with the same paddle and glint in his eyes. The purple lady threw something up and hit it causing the two of them to swing the paddles hitting something back and forth. Platt almost gets sick looking back and forth so Chulatt and Plachu took it upon themselves to jump of the fluffs and run under the table to the other side were Cosmo was sitting with Thatchia on his head as they watched the small ball move quickly between the two. Easily convincing Thatchia because Chulatt was her favorite, Cosmo comes along too more curious and bored of the screaming. With everyone distracted they left the room silently and made there way to the kitchen and their prize.

Getting there Cosmo drops Thatchia off on the island and walks over to cold machine and stands up, using the rest of the machine to stay standing. Using his teeth, Cosmo grips the side of the concave handle and pulls back, it takes a few tries, but he gets it open. Telsa and Faraday easily find the container and together push it close enough to the edge before Cosmo can grab it and sit it on the counter. The bite marks make it easier for Thatchia to lean against it and bite down the side until the container has a hole wide enough for the mice to pry open the tough papery material and the cylinder cold cream treat is theirs.

The fluffs eat the container happily while the other pets dig into the treat with the wolf getting the most in a single bite. They finish it off soon enough and all of them rest as they let the cold settle in their stomachs.

All except Chuchule.

See Thatchia liked Platt and Plachu since they were much calmer than Chuchule, who seemed to rub her the wrong way and only sightly tolerate her. But she seemed to be best buds with Chulatt as she was the only one able to lay in her super soft fur. 

Right now Chuchule wants to touch that fur.

She wants to sit still, but couldn't sit still as a burst of energy comes from some where. Tip-toeing over Chuchule gently pets Thatchia fur even as she turns to growl, but when she sees that it's fine she goes back. 

That's when Chuchule strikes.

Quickly ruffling her fur Thatchia snarls and is spinning around and chasing the pink mouse around the counter until she jumps down onto one of the chairs and makes it to the floor. Turning around to make fun of her lest and nimble pet Chuchule finds Thatchia running right for her and she dashes for the door. 

The crew of the ship find their pets soon as they run past them with the rest of the mice on Faraday and Telsa's backs as they float after the angered kittekirri with Cosmo easy trotting to keep up.


	3. Castle Vlog (Romelle)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With her family stripped away and friends still in disillusion Romelle was so alone in the universe. But with a chance meeting she gets the chance to help save her people and maybe even find a family again.

Incessant beeping is how Romelle had been starting most of her quintants since she took a leap of faith and left the colony. Usually it would be the sun, as artificial as it was, streaming lightly in through her window waking her up slowly and gently. Now it was like getting punched in the heart as she would bounce off her pillow startled in shock and fear before realizing where she was. Getting up and tapping the alarm she goes about getting ready and finds herself pleasantly reminiscing about everything that had happened as she braids her hair.

It was still unreal that only ten quintants ago she was more alone then she could ever be while surrounded by so many. Now she was on a large ship with only a small group of people, half of them aliens, and Romelle felt more liked then she did in a long time.

She spent most of her time following Krolia and Keith around, since she knew them longer, but the other Paladins would be around too and were very kind to her. They would ask her about herself and try to find things in common and other times they would just regale her with stories of their battles. And honestly most sounded like they were out of some of the few books of myths they had in the colony's library. Other's were very funny and seemed too ridiculous to be true. Hunk always gave her extra helpings at meal time and Pidge showed her video games, which even though she was quite bad at it she still had fun. Pidge also didn't seem to mind her questions about whatever she was working on too, explaining what she did as she did it. Romelle didn't talk to the leader, Shiro, much at first. She was slightly intimidated by his size and then him showing up the next quintant with white hair – though just a little duller than the prince's and princess's – and it spooked her as she wasn't expecting anyone else royal. Though through the Paladins' joking about their leader's 'old man hair' Romelle learns another difference between her and them as white hair on Humans meant old age.

And though the Humans and Krolia were nice she was relieved and overjoyed when Allura and A'lanor would seek her out and talk to her. She had just assumed they may ignore her since she was a simple nurse, but they had found things in common like the prince's interests in medicine and the princess' love for sparkly things. They also talked about heavier topics, like the colony, but they in turn told her about Altea, though Coran told stories of the lost planet the best with his fanciful words and amazing sound effects. All three have Romelle wishing she could see the planet for herself as the images they had were only so good.

It was never her intention to travel the stars and it was overwhelming to say the least with all the attention, but it was also oddly comforting with the effort everyone put forth to making her feel welcome. And at the end of each quintant Romelle can find herself not missing the colony when she's with the others and while that's sad it's not like she has much to go back too.

* * *

"Nothing?" Confusion laces the single word as A'lanor looks at her like she just told him she didn't know the alphabet.

"Nothing. The pod was piloted by Keith or Krolia. We have never had any use for them because the knowledge to fly them had been lost and everything was within walking distance or a quick hover ride away." Romelle answers sadly.

Allura had asked her to meet her and A'lanor on the bridge after their first meal and Romelle didn't know what to expect; had she been too casual with the princess and prince or was there something that she didn't pick up and had offended someone. Maybe her novelty had worn of and she was going to be asked to leave for somewhere else.

But apparently it wasn't anything like that or even bad. Allura just wanted to pass on the task of piloting the Castle of Lions to her!

Her reasoning was that with her and the prince being Paladins it made it difficult to be in two places at once. Plus, she saw it as her duty to pass on her knowledge to her as the next generation – quite literally. Both of them were in agreement and it wasn't like she didn't want to do it, it sounded so exciting. But this was a lot of pressure and though Romelle liked the idea of being like the Paladins her lack of mechanical knowledge puts this idea on pause.

"Well it can't be any worse then when Allura first flew the Castle." A'lanor says after a couple of ticks looking over at his sister with a judgmental look.

"It wasn't that bad. You're just exaggerating." Allura huffs and turns to her right with a pout and her arms crossed.

"I'm not," A'lanor walks over and in fake whispers says, "We were moving the Castle to run repairs and she begged to fly it and almost made us crash into one of our rings. It was wild."

With his smile Romelle can't tell if he's joking or not, but it does make her feel better. Looking over to the princess, she was still scowling as she glares at her brother only to quickly focus back on her.

"Don't worry about not knowing about flying, we'll teach you. What's really important is that you have the level of quintessence to create gates. You don't need take this responsibility if you don't —"

"That's not possible!" Romelle cuts her off with a sharp gasp. 

_I can't have the ability._

"Why not?" Allura asks looking puzzled.

"Because Lotor didn't choose me. He was choosing based on ability, which I didn't have."

"What?"

"We saw that the Alteans who were chosen were picked because of their genetic probability of being able to access quintessence. We saw when Krolia was collecting data and I just assumed..." Romelle tells them before trailing off as she remembers looking down the long cavernous hall that held friends and likely her family's corpses.

Allura and A'lanor's faces sour at that, but Allura walks down to the main controls and pulls something up. It takes Romelle a tick, but she recognizes her medical stats anywhere only that her probability is stated too and is around the same percentage as the other Alteans. Something she had never seen before.

"If that's the case it was likely that Lotor was only doing these experiments in small doses. When you came aboard the Castle scanned you and I found you had the same abilities as me before I grew in strength and knowledge. Lotor was likely able to have everyone develop a high genetic probability because the colony was a closed system with no outside interference."

"You were just luckily enough not to be selected." A'lanor frowns.

"It doesn't feel like it." Romelle growls at the news and at being told she was deceived again as she remembers the looks of frozen horror on the dried up husks of her friends and fellow Alteans.

But it's there for only a brief moment before the crippling and hollow feeling of surviving by mere chance has her in its grip before someone pulls her in for a comforting hug. Looking up Allura leans back and gazes softly at at her in sympathy.

"Don't feel guilty for someone else's actions. You could do nothing to stop it." She says softly before pulling her back into a hug that Romelle returns fiercely.

She feels the tears pricking at her eyes and blinks them away and looks out into the swirling blues of the wormhole and something tells her she here for a reason.

"Well I can do something now, can't I." Romelle says strongly and stands taller.

Allura and A'lanor turn to each other and a bright smiles comes across their lips before looking to her.

"Yes. Yes you can." A'lanor grins encouraging at her.

* * *

"Wow I can't believe we'll back on Earth in like three days I can't believe it's been like.... two years since everything happened." Hunk says as he brings over a bowl of chopped up fruit to the table. It was the final bit of food Hunk, A'lanor, Keith brought in for the first meal of the quintant.

"If we're being exacted then its the 9th quadment of the year and the 14th quintant of it." Coran states as he passes the bowl to Pidge so she can take some.

"Sooo if its 9th month of your year," Pidge says slowly as she does some mental math before speaking up again, "We've been in space for two years and seven months."

_Such a long time to be away from home._

Romelle thinks as Allura passes her the fruit to add to her _ome-lit?_ before she passing it to Keith. But as Romelle let's her eyes roam the contemplative faces of the Humans she sees a look of realization on the princess and prince's face before it is overwhelmed with glee as they turn to each other and yell in each other's faces.

"Your name celebration!"

"My name celebration!"

"Really? How wonderful!" Romelle clasps her hands together in joy, she always liked a good party, "How old?"

"It is my 18th year." A'lanor announces proudly.

The response from the Humans is immediate and if Romelle can read social cues correctly, not pleasant. Shiro starts choking on his food and everyone else's eyes grow twice their size before looking at the choking Human with a variety of weird expressions. Hunk looks scandalized as he places his hand over his heart, Pidge smirks with her lips twitching as she tries not to laugh, and Keith just shakes his head slowly before he coughs out something that sounds like 'cradle robber.' Krolia looks indifferent and continues to scoop out fruit onto her plate amidst the oddness. Choosing to ignore the Humans Romelle turns back to her prince.

"What will you do for the big 1-8-0? I remember getting a knitted scarf in my favorite colors of turquoise and purple."

A'lanor's smile falter as he fixes her with a critical gaze before asking lowly, "How old are you?"

"I'm 3 of 19." Romelle declares proudly as she seems to realize what the prince did and as his ears bend back and down in disappointment she can't help but giggle.

"What? No! How am I the youngest one here!" He shouts and Romelle keeps giggling at his putout look.

By now Shiro had stop coughing and everyone's attention was focused on them.

"What?"

"You said 1-8-0, as in 180. 180 years old?" Pidge asks like she was trying to understand what was said.

"Yes? Why?" Romelle looks over not understanding what was wrong.

"Ah, I think I know were the missed translation is." Coran pipes up with a bright look that he always got when he was able to explain something.

He tells them how when Alteans first started to become star-faring and meet other aliens that those aliens were intimidated by the longevity of Alteans. So to appeal to them they changed the way that they spoke about their ages to calm the other planets they started to visit. Coran also explains why they say their ages as well with revealing Allura age to be 9 of 21 and Coran trying to whisper his age, which was 3 of 62, and Romelle would have to say that must be wrong. He doesn't look a quintant over his 50th year.

"Oh thank God." Shiro sighs in relief as he slumps in his chair much to Romelle's - and it looks like the other Alteans - confusion.

It was about five vargas later after Allura had her run through a quick simulation for flying the Castle and Coran showed her how to reinforced the shield in one place and another lesson on the Teladuv that Romelle eagerly retired to her room where she barely flopped on her large bed only for a knock to sound at her door.

"Noooo." She moans into her pillows before getting up and answering the door to see A'lanor with a square folded piece of smooth white fabric and Allura standing next to him with a shy smile.

"Oh! Please come in," A'lanor bounces in while Allura strolls in, "What is it that you needed?" Romelle ask, but hopes that nothing else will be asked of her for a few hours.

"So I know it's my name celebration, but we wanted to give you a gift instead." A'lanor smiles.

Before she can say they didn't need to Allura is agreeing, "It's been great getting to know you and you've been really brave by coming all the way out here Romelle. And you've been doing so great with learning about the ship so -"

"Tada!" A'lanor shouts and unfolds the square and lays it out on her bed.

It's a [spacesuit](http://min-xie.tumblr.com/post/177145860869/she-went-from-angry-conspiracy-theorist-to-little).

And not just any old spacesuit, but one with her favorite colors. She feels her throat go dry and her eye tear up before she recognizes that what she's feeling is a mixture of sadness and joy. Joy for having people who actually talk to her again and want to be nice to her just because. But also sad that she was experiencing this again after so many years of loneliness. It hurt and felt amazing at the same time.

"It's for when you pilot the Castle. You'll be official." A'lanor tells her.

"Thank you so much. I – I can't even explain how much this means to me."

"You don't need to Romelle. Please try it on." Allura urges her and it doesn't take much as she quickly grabs the suit and runs to her closet bathroom.

It takes her only a few ticks to get into the suit, but almost a full dobosh to zip up the suit by herself, but when she does she looks in the mirror and can't figure out what emotion she experiencing, but she feels like she could take on any problem right now. Deciding she had stood in front of the mirror long enough she walks back into her room and finds only Allura sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Oh! It fits perfectly! Spin for me."

Romelle laughs as she does so, especially as Allura laughs too.

"Where is A'lanor?" She ask after she stops spinning.

"He wanted us to be triples and went to go get his as well."

The feeling from before comes back, but warmer as she hears about the prince wanting to match with her. But as she looks at Allura Romelle feels shyness creep up as thought comes to her.

"Allura?" The princess's eyes loses some of the happiness that they had as she calms down and waits for her to finish, "I don't know if this is alright for me to ask, but would you be okay - if it was alright - to teach me how to put my hair up like yours."

"May I ask why?"

Romelle turns away from the searching eyes as she quietly admits, "It just seems more dignified to have it up. To be impressive in the face of danger."

Looking back she only sees a soft smile as Allura walks over and lays a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I think I can figure out something."

"Figure out what?" A'lanor ask as he walks back in.

She sees he was actually wearing a suit just like Allura's and hers - she assumed he was getting the Paladin armor. His had bright blue where her turquoise was and soft green where the purple was on her shoulders and waist.

"My hair." Romelle answers excitedly and A'lanor perks up at that too.

They decide to keep her part down the center of her head, but undo the rest of her braids and braid from the back up the sides and turn the rest of the hair into two buns on her left and right. The last of her hair is braid down the back of her head with Allura's help and was wrap up into a third and final bun. Romelle can't stop admiring herself in the mirror as she had never seen all her hair pulled into such tight forms, but she loved it.

"Okay picture time." Allura grins.

When Romelle is going to bed later that quintant she finds herself looking over at her side table to the holodeck that would transition to show the four pictures they took with each one having her in the middle with either goofy faces, being held up, or posing seriously for fun. But her favorite is the simple one they took with their arms around each other's shoulders and herself smiling as brightly as the prince and princess that their eyes were closed. Smiling at the picture and the recent memory Romelle settles in for another peaceful night aboard the Castle with her heart warmed with friendship.

* * *

Allura drops them out near a small purplish planet, that everyone calls Pluto, so Romelle can have her first run and get use to going through this unfamiliar system - though all systems were unfamiliar to her - this also give them time to contact Pidge's father who tells them that it took some time, but all of Earth had come together to get ready for the Galra attack. Pidge's father also tells them that they'll be ready for them by tomorrow and gives them the date, which Hunk happily tells A'lanor that it means his name celebration, that was two quintants ago, was July 28th and that he needs to write that down for next year. 

It's a little hard navigating through the more populated neighborhoods of the giant planets' moons and planets themselves, but remembering how to compensate for gravitational pulls and having the shields on low for debris Romelle makes it to a moon called Europa to wait for tomorrow trek. When they land the next quintant in a desert its a little rough, but A'lanor soothes her fears with a quirky smile and a sassy comment of 'I didn't throw up so you did a much better job than Allura's first go' which does help even if it causes Allura to pout.

Its unnerving and exciting to make it to another planet and as they ride down to the surface Romelle is suddenly struck by how her small role is of great importance to keep this planet safe and that the great responsibility of being the pilot of this ship is. But she is proud of it and when this was over she can't wait for her fellow Alteans to see the Castle in all it's glory and the fantastically compassionate royalty that lives within.

She can't wait for them to be a whole society again, safe and sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when Romelle got introduced I thought she would be important to the plot too (plus she's funny), but she was like Allura's 'kinda buddy' where she showed up for small bits, but that was it. Honestly, I was looking for some of the attitude Allura showed in this season in her, but nothing about how she really felt was expressed so I decided to give her some exposition and a new job.
> 
> Up next: Earth!


	4. Defenders of Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having been back for seven months Sam has just been able to inform the world of the dangers of the Galra. With all of Earth's resources and countries working together they may have a chance.
> 
> Also the Castle of Lions showing up may help quite a bit too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about another late update! I got a nasty stomach bug literally the day before Christmas and spent all my time sleeping or in severe pain and only just got over it after New Years.
> 
> Also this chapter is long too so there's that too.

As the sun beats down on them, roasting them like a summer barbecue the time ticks by slowly as the chosen few officers of the Garrison keep a watchful eye out for the white and blue ship. They didn't need to go far from the grounds, it was supposed to land just right of the multi-purpose runway in the open unused land. This ship's landing would mark the first accurately documented alien encounter and the final step towards a war they must be on the defense for.

But Adam was waiting for another reason.

Right now all he was thinking about seeing Takashi again and that alone puts his stomach in a horrible mess of nervous emotions while his mind was a small hurricane of fury.

After Commander Holt told them the rest of the Kerberos mission had lived and that Takashi was alive along with Keith being in space with him Adam had been so relieved. Finding out that the person you loved and the kid you basically were raising for three years were out there in some far flung reach of space was very overwhelming at first, but knowing that they were with each other helped some. While he thought he knew what happened to Takashi, Keith had just not answered his weekly call or the next one, and with not knowing where he was hiding out Adam was at a loss of what to do as he never found any clues.

Having the clearance and his expertise being needed Adam was allowed to see the videos that the commander brought back with him explaining the situation they were going to be faced with and the technology to fight it. But there had also been a special one for him sent by Takashi. When the video started Adam had to stop it almost immediately after not hearing that voice for so long as his heart was gripped with remorse, anger, and relief at proof that he was alive. He must have just sat there for a few minutes afterwards looking at the soft smiling face of his ex and wondered for a time – as he did in the months after the launch – did he make a mistake. Pushing that thought aside Adam watches as Takashi tells his parents he's alright and how he's being taken care of by friends. The moment he says it Takashi smiles faintly, but his eyes are looking up, behind the camera, not directly at the camera anymore.

At first he assumed nothing of it, but when he stopped talking to his family he watches the angle moves before Takashi is telling a Lance to stop. But when his name is mentioned the other person gasp, telling Adam he knows about him. And he made his presence known, even if Adam never saw him, because Takashi would sometimes stop to look at the person behind the camera in a fond way that Adam had been on the receiving end many times. When the commander came for the video Adam couldn't let his curiosity lie and asked did he know a Lance. The commander helpfully told him that was the prince's nickname.

Prince A'lanor was Lance.

He had seen the prince's picture during the initial briefing and was not only shocked again by the fact aliens were real, but also how unrealistic they seemed with their ethereal features. He was one of three Alteans that had instructional videos that gave brief, but detail descriptions of the machines in the Castle that ran it or protected it. But hearing and seeing the way Takashi looked at him – it put everything into a new perspective.

"Are they ... together?" Adam finds himself asking as he hands the disk over to Commander Holt.

"Shiro and Lance?" The commander looks away contemplating briefly before a fond smile appears on his lips, "I would say yes."

The cringy heavy feeling settling in his stomach has Adam quickly and quietly excusing himself to his office. He easily sinks into his lieutenant mindset and attends meetings, engineering planning sessions, and working with McClain running new simulations with their best candidates as they wait for the engineering department to finish the jets. In the meantime the Garrison starts to quickly learn and adapt new technology for not only defenses for the grounds, but a massive ship, energy, medical, and at the moment the first MFE series of jets as the world lives on in ignorant silence. But Commander Holt and his wife don't see what they were doing as good enough, and Adam is inclined to agree, and is filled with bittersweet emotions when they tell the world and the world willing sends help back. But puts Adam in a difficult situation with having to hear from Takashi's parents after so long as they ask if it was all true. That's when the cracks in his mask start to show and they become worst when he hears about the Paladins coming back to Earth in two weeks.

Takashi is coming back in two weeks and Adam isn't sure if he's ready.

In the scramble to prep for the visitors Adam can hide his own stress as something else and is relieved when no one questions it. Everyone but McClain. For almost seven months he doesn't have to address his feeling on the matter until he's forced to by his noisy, but concern friend all because he couldn't keep his cool with the pilots today when they didn't perform a simple evasion maneuver that they had done previously. Later after the squadron's debriefing he and McClain head to their next debrief with the head of the Garrison and he knows she talking to him, but his mind is so muddled with more personal thoughts that all his professional ones are gone.

"...and then we could run the canyon drills with them when they get here in two days to practice on quick changes. Maybe we could get the Paladins to run interference since they'll be the closest thing well get to fight against alien tech. Plus, they'll need to get use to it since the new series three will...... Hey? Adam? Are you listening?" McClain asks as she gently knocks his shoulder, throwing him out of his haze.

"Yes McClain." He answers stiffly, trying to look impassive.

But her lips curl up at the edges in her signature feline grin as she ask calmly, "So you heard everything I asked Lieutenant Commander Willemsen."

Adam can't do more then blink in the wake of the face causing McClain to change from sass to a concern frown.

"I'm serious Adam? Are you okay? You've been a lot tougher these past two weeks. And over small things too. Like the MFE debriefing, it was more like when my mama is chewing the grandkids out for playing fútbol in the house," McClain says as she takes a moment to look at him.

As her look becomes more shrew Adam knows she knows the root of his problem, "... Is it about Shiro?"

"Not everything about me has to deal with Shiro." Adam dismisses her and tries to walk forward, but she quickly steps in front of him blocking his way from the intersection up ahead.

"Sure, but this is."

" _Of course it is!_ " He seethes in rage, glaring at McClain his anger exploding, "Why wouldn't it be? My supposedly _dead ex_ -fiancé, who chose the infinite vastness of space over me is coming back to Earth, _alive_ , and in a relationship with a twink of a magic space prince! He has somehow _made it_ about himself again!" 

He's not sure why her statement made him snap, but the unresolved feelings with all of this and the encroaching war and pressures break through in a messy flood of emotions.

McClain stands her ground, but watches him with pity, which is what he never wanted and knew what would happen if he ever said anything.

Placing a comforting hand on his shoulder McClain as lightly, "....... Adam. I can ask Commander Holt or Iverson for you–"

"No." He doesn't say it harshly, but McClain closes her mouth and takes a step back knowing he was done with this discussion.

"We have a common enemy and I won't let something as small as this stop me and my team from being as ready as the Voltron team to help protect Earth." He tells her and at her faint 'okay' he continues swiftly to the war room trying to rebuild the walls he let fall.

* * *

* * *

Looking over the MFE pilots and small group of guards Sonda insist they bring along, Sam could see Adam glaring at the sky with the same intensity of the sun. He couldn't imagine what was going on in his head at this second, but he knew it was about Shiro.

He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but with two clever and mischievous kids Sam had learned to keep his ears toned for anything – that included passing officers complaining about a past significant other. He was right at the intersection when he heard the rough and angry sound of Adam's voice as he told Veronica his problems. He had quickly backtrack enough and made himself look down at his notes as he walked back to the intersection just to almost run into Veronica and act like nothing happened, now he wishes he said something. But maybe those two days helped.

"Look!" Someone called out.

And not a moment to soon to tell as as the Castle of Lions begins it's slow decent, blinding them with the rays of the sun bouncing of its glittering exterior and highlighting its streamlined and alien physique. The touchdown seems a little rougher than he remembers, but as the ship settles and they walk closer Sam can feel the bubbling joy and happiness of seeing his little girl again. And he knows Colleen feels it to when he can already hear the sniffling from his left. He wants to act dignified, but when he sees the external elevator start to descend they both can't stop themselves from running to the elevator in a hurry. Katie is the first one out, springing into Colleen's arms and causing her to fall onto her butt. But the crying and happy laughter tells everyone it doesn't matter. Sam wants to hug his daughter too and tell her how much he misses her, but he needs to act none basis for just a bit longer since his tension with Sonda is still precarious.

Clearing her throat the woman makes herself known only a couple of feet away.

"Commander."

"Yes, let me introduce you to the others." 

The rest of the Voltron team files out of the elevator and around the cute scene of Katie and Colleen, and Sam sees a lot has happened since he last saw them. Not only was Keith back with a large black and blue wolf, but Shiro was missing his robotic arm and his hair was stark white. There was also two new faces among the group. One was a blonde Altean that was in a spacesuit he had seen Allura wear from time to time when he lived in the Castle. The other was —

"Galra!"

The guards move in and draw their newer blasters and train them on the unconcerned female Galra – who looks familiar somehow – but everyone steps in front of her making a barrier.

"Don't shoot. She's with us." Keith yells at them.

"She's the enemy." Cadet Griffin says from where he also has a blaster drawn.

"She's my mom," Keith growls and that has everything coming to a stop before he continues, "And she's apart of a rebel faction that helps the Coalition."

"Oh, that Blade of Mamona." 

"Marmora." Keith corrects irritated.

Everyone quickly stands down at that, reholstering their weapons, "We're sorry ma'am." The guard captain says sheepishly.

"No. Its fine," She says with a sharp smile, "I would've done the same. And good reflexes. You humans are much more tenacious than others would give you credit for."

After that Sam tries to smooth things over with introducing Iverson and Sonda to the Alteans as the others start to talk to the MFE pilots and other officers. 

"Admiral Sonda. Commander Iverson. I'd like you to officially meet the aliens who have given us most of their schematics, the Alteans."

Coran walks forward and bows before introducing the small group. The new blonde Altean throws Sam for bit of a loop – since there was only supposed to be three Alteans left, but he's sure either Shiro or Katie will fill him in on this new development.

"Greeting Humans, I am Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe. The royal advisor to the house of Soliz of Altea. May I present Princess Allura and Prince A'lanor along with their friend and fellow Altean, Romelle Hywel."

"Good afternoon – uh your highnesses." Iverson tips his beret at them.

Sonda simply nods at them and it has Sam physically fighting himself to not roll his eyes at the slight disrespect.

"Thank you for having us. Your planet looks very lovely," Allura smiles politely and adjusts her helmet under her arm so she could hold a hand out to shake Iverson's hand, "I hope that the blueprints and videos were helpful in boosting your planet's defenses." 

"It was slow going at first, but we've made more progress in the last month then before." Sam tells her.

Sonda frown lines get deeper as her face hardens at the small dig, but Sam isn't very worried about it.

"Well I'm pretty sure with a little extra help from the people that live and breathe the technology will be immensely helpful." Iverson speaks up before the tension between the two of them is set off in another argument.

"Yes we would be happy if your expertise would be shown in building a craft like yours and powering it. Ours has run into ..."

As the Admiral laid out what problems they had with the IGF-Atlas Sam took a chance to look back at Keith, who had introduced his mother to Adam while Shiro stands a couple feet back. Sam watches as he smiles at the Galra woman before gently ruffling Keith's hair making him laugh and smile before turning his focused on Shiro. The heavy tension could be felt from here. Adam's glare is so icy he's sure that it would have frozen Shiro in a glacier. He can't see Shiro's face, but he can't imagine he looks comfortable. But it breaks when Adam takes a step forward and wraps him in a tight hug. Shiro startles and leans back only for a second before he is leaning into the embrace and hugging Adam back just as tight.

Sam sighs in relief at the scene only for it to go out the window a minute later as Adam steps back from Shiro to get him hard with a right hook before turning on his heel and walking away. Shiro, unprepared for the sudden change and lacking the balance of another arm, falls soundly to the ground with McClain whistling at what just happened.

_Well so much for cooler heads._

Sam winces and is immediately concerned about what will happen next as Lance sees and runs over to Shiro before glaring at Adam's retreating back, but makes no move to go after him as Adam makes it make to the engineer labs.

_Definitely going to be a long war._

Sam mental groans as everyone looks lost more following Adam's example to leave fore the Garrison and gives Sam a chance to show off what they had completed and currently working on.

Following that Sam and the other officers settled down into the longest debrief to date, where the team tells them about what has been happening at the front lines and who the face of their enemy finally was. A vicious rouge general by the name of Sendak that operated with a cult like zeal destroying even his own people if they had complied to the former rule of prince Lotor. Though the meeting was used to answered all of Sonda's most pressing questions – ones that she often threw at him trying to reassert her control – Sam was exhausted and just wants to cuddle up with his family when Allura asked for him to stay behind. But what she wants to talk about is surprisingly short and something that wakes Sam up very quickly.

Allura talks to him about getting Shiro a new arm.

She tells him how she spoke with Ryner before she left and acquired the parts they could use. Taking a small flat cylinder from her belt, she lays it down on the table and clicks it, displaying a few cybernetic prosthesis for him to look at. They were only half complete, but even he could see that they were incredible.

"Princess this is amazing." Sam breathes in awe as he reads through some of the schematics.

"It is the least I could do for him not only being a great help with this horrible war and being a crucial part of defeating the Galra, but," And he hears her voice go soft and he turns to her, "but for also making my brother smile again. If I could, I would give him his true arm back." 

"If I knew anything I would too."

The feelings of guilt crop up again at being able to get out of having to fight because of his intelligence and ingenuity. Sam would experience it from time to time, crippling his thoughts and dictating his actions for the day. And he's sure Allura had seen how Shiro's time with the Galra had a lasting effect on him too.

"Well let us not bring ourselves down with these heavy thoughts," Allura finally says breaking Sam out of his mind, "This was supposed to be a joyful meeting and I'm sure with your greater understanding of merging technologies and obviously the knowledge of your own biology we could easily help create an arm for Shiro that will truly be his."

"Yes. Yes we will. It's the least we can do for that great man." 

A man with boundless kindness, a courageous heart, and a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good that was only found in myths and battles from long ago.

"Truly one in a star system." Allura agrees.

* * *

* * *

"So Shirogane's involved with the alien prince?" 

Now most people think they know him and they do, but only the commander Iverson part. Very few know about Mitchell Iverson who loves his job, enjoys down time with his two dogs hiking around the Arizona landscape, and a very gentle guy. He needs to put on an act for the students or they'll never be discipline. But something else that people didn't realize is that not only did he like to tell a good story he enjoyed one too. He's pretty sure he gets it from his Nana and his Títo watching different soap operas as they talked about their friends in similar situations all while trying to teach him the desserts they were so good at.

It had been a month since Shirogane and the cadets got back from the deep reaches of space and the base was privy to a front row seat of a whopper of a story that right now was told mostly in tense and dramatic glares from across the room to standing next to each other before the two would excuse themselves – with excuses to one up the other one – and walk away fiercely. Mitch wasn't completely clued in, but anyone with an eye could what was going on. And while it was at times something interesting to see he did hoped it turn out well. 

Holt looks up from where he was collecting some extra prosthetic blueprints with a curious look before he's shaking his head.

"Yes. They were very sweet on each other the last time I saw them." Holt says softly like he was scared saying it would cause them to show up.

"No one says 'sweet on' anymore Holt." Mitch finds himself chuckling before sipping at his third cup of coffee.

The lukewarmness of the drink is telling of how he wishes for a longer break, but soon the younger officers will start taking their breaks and force the three old timers out. Mitch knew what it was like to be in the militarization time frame of a upcoming war. He was just a cavalry member at the beginning of WW3, but he had the energy and less stiff muscles to help then, now he's just tired.

"Well I do, so it doesn't matter." Holt tells him looking miffed at being told his language was old.

"So he's been handling it well then." Mitch asks in between long drags of coffee.

"Who? And what?"

"The ex and the current. It's a hard line to tread."

Holt gives him a bemused look before reminding him that both of his ex-wives work here and he didn't seem to have too much trouble.

"Yeah, but it's hard to ask for somethings sometimes," Mitch mutters before getting up to wash out the cup only for him to stop as someone else walked in, "Ah Shirogane, we were just talking about you." 

"All good things I hope."

Shirogane smiles briefly as he makes a bee-line to the coffee machine expertly working the contraption with just his one arm.

"We were talking about Adam and Lance." Holt tells him as he starts packing up his sheets into his bag.

"Oh?" Shirogane looks over kind of intrigued, probably finding it funny that he was a talking topic for the older officers.

"Just the struggles you might face with the ex-fiancé and the current boyfriend." Mitch fills in since Holt left him.

Shirogane's normally calm face clouds a bit at that, "They won't be like that."

"Really? The tension between them is as sharp as a carving knife and as thick as San Francisco smog. Last I checked Willemsen is still pretty competitive and I heard the prince boasting about his aim earlier today."

The unease becomes a bit more prevalent in Shirogane's eyes as he seems to be thinking about all the times there were terse words and angry glances, "Well yeah, but they wouldn't —" 

A sharp and shrill beeping cuts him off as he answers his communicator.

"Hey. What is it Keith?" 

"You should come down to the training room. Just in case." Kogane basically demands before hanging up.

Shirogane gives him a wary look before quickly turning about face and Mitch makes the decision to follow him, which with what happens later was a smart move.

They end up in the newly built training room that was going to be used for field prep and skill testing with the help of amazing holographic technology and training sequences from the Castle's training deck that Coran had help install. Watching from behind the protective glass with the MFE cadets and Kogane they watch as Willemsen and the prince quickly go through the simulation as they hit small moving flat targets. Mitch watches, very impressed, as they stay neck and neck into the very end when the prince gets the last two targets before Willemsen with a weapon akin to a space age rifle and wins the simulation. He also apparently feels the need to gloat if the smug look on his face is anything to go by.

With neither of them wearing an ear piece they are forced to watch in silence as the prince says something while looking to the observation room, which is angrily countered by Willemsen. It obviously strikes a nerve because the prince frowns before starting to speak again only for Willemsen to cut him off and has the prince not only looking scandalized, but very hurt. But that doesn't stop the lieutenant from whatever he's saying as he continues speaking, all the while looking superior. Something breaks the camel's back as the prince hurls his rifle – that changes to the odd little base weapon in mid air – and nails Willemsen in the head before dropping down to spin his leg out, toppling the lieutenant. But Willemsen wasn't in the top five of his class for nothing. Just as quick he's rolling to his left and lunging forward as the prince was moving to where he was and takes him down. Mitch, having seen enough, rushes to the door and opens it to see that the two had dissolved into a fist fight.

Immediately sprinting over he reaches for Willemsen's collar and desperately drags him back with all of his might with only one thought in mind.

_Don't let Shirogane grab the wrong person._

If they're fighting about Shirogane – which he's very sure they are – and he accidentally grabs the wrong one, that being Willemsen, he could cause a problem.

A protective big sister problem.

While Mitch didn't have much interaction with the prince he did have meetings with his sister and one thing he knew is that he didn't want her to get angry. Princess Allura was calculating, fiery, and definitely vengeful – probably willing to be liberal with a weapon – and he had seen how her face darkened when she talked about the coming threat. It told him he never wanted to fight the princess of Altea.

Once Willemsen was detangled from the prince he calms down considerably, and more so when Shirogane drags the fussing prince away. If he had more time he'd chew Willemsen out for his crass display of interfighting and lack of discipline, but he has a meeting with Sonda and other heads of departments about communication for during the war. With a quick 'We'll be discussing this later' he leaves for the offices again only to stop as he hears an annoyed and terse voice. 

"Lance! What was that?"

Looking around the corner Mitch finds the two standing across from each other in a small study alcove, the prince with his arms crossed over his armor glaring at the ground while Shirogane stand resolutely  with his left hand on his hip. At the strained silence Mitch has a feeling he should stay and watch — just in case someone needs to break something up or whatever.

"Were you trying to prove something? Because if you were fighting Adam over me I —"

A sharp laugh cuts through the seriousness of the atmosphere and the prince looks up with a manic grin, but Mitch can see his eyes were fearful from where he stood.

"That would be extremely primitive. Fighting over a guy. Who does that?" The prince laughs harshly.

"You didn't answer." Shirogane narrows his eyes.

"Because it's obvious."

"That you were picking a fight."

"Why would it matter if I did?" The prince grounds out as he folds his arms tighter.

"Lance," Said with such a disgruntled sigh that Mitch knew was from when Shirogane was trying to discipline Kogane and was accompanied by him massaging the bridge of his nose, "This is a very time sensitive moment. We can't afford to have anyone not trust the rest of the team."

"I know that. Don't lecture me about that."

"Then don't act in a way that would have me do it. You starting a fight over me isn't flattering, it's childish."

"I AM NOT CHILDISH!"

The prince shouts taking an intimidating step forward, but Shirogane doesn't move. They stare at each other for watch seems like hours before the prince looks away and says quietly,

".... I'm not. You're both wrong."

"Both?" Shirogane questions, his posture softening a bit.

"Yeah both.... may ...Maybe he's right I'm just a childish prince trying to act bigger than I am. I mean — Quiznak! How could you leave him? He's like great at everything. Head of his own team, top pilot here, everyone who talks about him doesn't say anything but how amazing and dedicate and mature he is. All I have is a title. Why wouldn't I want to prove that you should stay with me? That I'm just as good or better than him. That I will always love you." The prince tells him passionately as a frown fixes itself on his lips.

Shirogane doesn't say anything at first as he steps closer and then takes his right hand in his left.

"You're fantastic Lance," Shirogane tells him softly, "I tell you that every day and I mean it every time. You are great for me. And as great as Adam is I wasn't good for him. We were at one time, but I wanted different things and kept thinking he would follow along with me. I was wrong. I wish I wasn't, but, but if I wasn't I wouldn't have you."

The prince looks up, still doubtful, asking, "So I'm ... I'm not a back up?"

Shirogane's eyes widen comedically as he shakes his head, "God – No Lance. Never. He ended it months before and we had arguments leading up to it, but when he gave back the ring ... I knew it was over and threw myself into my work telling myself it was worth the loss."

"And was it?"

"At the time it was. It still hurt. A lot. But it felt amazing to be out there," And using the hand in his hold Shirogane pulls the prince closer to him and leans his forehead against his, "And later it was amazing to be out there with you. I love you so much too."

A wobbly smile stretches across his lips as the prince pulls him in for a hug, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I should have told you." He says returning the hug.

Seeing the much too sweet scene Mitch walks away letting them be alone together. With a small smile he thinks how most of this could have been avoided if they had communicated better, but it seems that's fixed now and he just has a feeling everything else is going to be fine too.

* * *

* * *

James stares at his lunch tray in distress before images from earlier assaulted his brain again and has him groaning in dismay as he lets the scene play out for what has to be the sixth time since it happened.

He and the rest of his squadron were trying to figure out what was wrong with his relay to his afterburners' boost from the engine, but everything with human and Altean engineering was still a bit weird so they weren't getting far. But then who should shows up, but the Alteans, who were just getting back from their solar system hoping mission. They had traveled to Ganymede and the moon to mine for ores to use in some metallurgy for the Atlas' hull. Nadia called them over to ask if they could help and while they did, James wishes maybe not in their spacesuits. Lance brought down the engine from the undercarriage and bends over to look at it. Allura and Romelle followed suit, leaning over and resting their hands on their knees as the two siblings explained stuff to her and maybe them – James doesn't know, he was kind of distracted with having an uninterrupted view of their asses. He has eyes – and it only gets worst when Romelle answers a question and gets it right and does a little shake leaving him mostly speechless.

He knows he was in shock and has to turn away with a whispered 'Oh. My. God.'. Nadia just gets this goofy grin as she says 'wow' while Leifsdottir and Kinkade's eyes widen in shock.

"So adorable." Nadia's voice crashes through his memory.

"Who?" James looks up in confusion, trying to remember if they were talking about anything.

"Them!" Nadia hisses as she points her fork to the right.

Turning in that direction he can see the Voltron team eating lunch across from them. More specifically he could see the Alteans attempting to eat pizza for what James is assuming the first time ever and can't stop the brief chuckle as they all simultaneously have that look of 'this is the best thing ever' as they take a bite. The rest of the team doesn't hold back their laughter and it can be heard just above the regular noise of the cafeteria.

"I can _not_ even with these aliens?" Nadia fonds over them and brings James' focus back to her, "They're so soft like now, but they can be fierce. Like we've seen Lance take on lieutenant Willemsen. They're like elves from The Mirkwood or lot-leth-loft — Ina help me out."

"Lothlorien."

"Yes! Aren't they?" Nadia grins as she looks around their table. 

Kindade nods in agreement as Leifsdottir shrugs nonchalantly, but even as they talk thankfully with the layout of the cafeteria the wider aisle between the two sections keeps them from hearing this conversation.

"I don't know where that is." James admits and Nadia's grin nosedives into a frown.

"I'm so disappointed in you James, but I'm not surprised."

"What does that mean?"

"Rizavi is correct in the similarities." Leifsdottir adds with her normal enthusiasm.

"Yes! They're super graceful, live really long, can fight, and are fine as hell." Nadia sighs dreamily as she rests her head in her hands and looks over to their table again.

"They are aesthetically pleasing." Leifsdottir's whispers after a bit of staring.

Kindade nods too prompting James to try and be the voice of reason and remind his team they're just people.

"Well when you're parading around in skintight space spandex it might help. But yeah they're pretty hot. The blonde seems pretty cool." James mumbles the last part as he looks over to the other table the same time Romelle apparently looks up and she waves to him.

He can't help remembering the first time he met her and she leaned into his space inspecting his eyes and commenting they were 'The loveliest shades of brown she had ever seen'.

"I think the princess is the bomb," Nadia chimes in excited. Likely happy that he wasn't stopping her from praising her crush, "Ugh! Step on me please! What about you Ryan?"

Kinkade stares at her with a bored look before sighing and answering quietly, "...The prince is beautiful." 

"Ina."

"I agree with Kinkade. The prince has a symmetrical face that only few have and most wish to obtain."

"I think the prince is hot too."

James was in the middle of taking a drink and ends up choking while Nadia full on spits her water across the table. Looking to his left James is not deceived and sees lieutenant Shirogane standing next to the drink machine and smiling cheeky at them. James tries to get words out, but probably looks like a fish gasping for air as he sits here in front of his hero and can't find any words to say that won't make him sound like an idiot. Lieutenant Shirogane seems to have mercy on them all after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence as his smile becomes softer.

"Don't worry I'm not going to court martial you for looking at my boyfriend," He says lightly as he turns to fill up his cup.

James looks around the table and sees Nadia with a frozen and freaked out smile, Leifsdottir stares back blankly with slightly wider eyes, and Kinkade looks like he ate a whole lemon and is trying to hide under the table.

"He is pretty hard to miss," Shirogane says with a fond sigh as he looks over to the table, "But what I was going to says was good job on your interplanetary maneuvers today."

"Thank you sir." James shakily and quickly answers after he dumbly nods at _The_ Takashi Shirogane like a starstruck school kid.

He looks like he was going to say more, but Lance calls him over so with a slight nod of his head he walks off and sits with his team. After that James tries to get his friends – mostly Nadia – to stay on track with their daily training, but that goes out the window when going to the training room to train with the blasters and Allura is there explaining and assembling a blaster to other cadets. Nadia sighs so loud James is surprised no one heard. 

"Is there something wrong?"

Jumping back he turns around to find Keith's judging face and Hunk smiling his usual friendly grin.

"Only that they're beautiful aliens being beautiful over there." Nadia tells them in an aggressive voice, which if James didn't know her better would sound angry, but she was just frustrated with herself.

Keith stares at her before saying slowly, "Oh. ...Okay?"

"How do you deal with it? They're all so......"

"Beautiful?" Hunk ventures with a smirk.

"Yes!" She dramatically throws her hands up, "Isn't it ridiculous?"

"It's just something you get used to after awhile." Keith tells her with a soft smile.

James scoffs at that. As if Keith even looked at anyone else long enough to notice anything, "I bet you can't even see that, like a _normal_ person." 

Keith's eyes narrow and his lips turn down, but he doesn't make any moves past that.

"You're right," Hunk chuckles lightly, "He didn't even notice they were attractive until like two weeks after we got there when you honestly to God had an epiphany in the lounge going 'oh my God the Alteans are hot'."

"That sounds like Keith." James laughs.

"And Pidge was like 'Yeah, where have you been?' and then I said —"

"Hunk." Keith stresses as he turns to the larger man with a look that would melt steel.

"Right," Hunk deflates before looking to them with a shy grin, "Just ask if they want to do anything with you guys. Exposure should help. I think? I mean I know we talked a bit when we're running drills with you, but that's about it."

"Then we'll have to fix that." Nadia says with a terrifyingly happy grin.

What she decides for all of them is a night out in the closest town. Nadia told the Voltron team to come dressed down and meet them at a club called the Purple Gila that was having a 2010's music night and to not worry about Holt's daughter, they could sneak her in through the back. It sounded like a good idea — being able to form some type of understanding and relax for a bit. It should be the prefect time, which is also the problem. Nadia's not wrong about it being a good idea, but it wasn't the best idea either. Actually James is sure it made her admiration for Allura is worst now and James can't get Romelle's happy grin and loud laughter out of his head.

Looking down at his lunch the next day James has to laugh at the déjà vu of it as he laments how this all happened. Looking over at Nadia, she looks like she's given up as she stares, lost, at her macaroni with her hands steeple in front of her. 

"You're stuck again aren't you?" He ask in a weary tone.

She answers him in the form of erratic hand gestures and dying animal noises.

"Yeah. It's been a day." He pats her arm sympathetically.

"What's with you?" 

Looking over he sees officer McClain with her lunch. Scooting over she sits down and he gives her the spark notes versions of last night's bonding experience with Nadia stopping from her meltdown to add her own commentary.

"Worse. Decision.  _Ever!_  They can dance and they're hot. They wear short tight movable clothes and look amazing."

"Movable?" McClain looks to him lost at her meaning.

"They move really well in their tight clothes." James provides with a tip lip grimace.

Kindade, who had shown up in the middle of Nadia's latest rant, passes over his phone to shows McClain some videos of what happened last night. The bouncy dance music blends in with the rest of the sounds of the cafeteria and they all watch as her face goes through a series of emotions before she's giving the phone back and trying not to laugh.

"Wow. And you didn't fall out?"

"I thought my lungs would explode from not breathing. She's amazing and I. Just. Can't!" Nadia mumbles into her arms before letting loose a scream of dying noises.

McClain looks unphased by her cadets' craziness and looks to the rest of the table, "The rest of you seem fine."

"We did not dance at them or on them and spent most of the night sitting in the booth." Leifsdottir tells her promptly and causes another set of high stress groans from Nadia.

"Kindade and Leifsdottir got a dance from the prince though." James says as he tries to take the heat off his friend.

McClain turns to them instantly with a sly grin, "Have fun?"

"It was a slow song and he was a gentleman. He also has fantastic control over his vocal cords." Leifsdottir says quickly and even James can see that she was flustered.

"He sang to you." McClain surmises and causes Leifsdottir to actually blush as she looks to the table.

"Wow. Kindade?"

He pauses and his face screws up in thought, like he's looking for the right word, but even when he finds it he seems unsure, "He's very ......salacious."

McClain blinks at Kinkade with a wary look and then to everyone else to see that a few pretty faces seemed to knock them all off their feet.

"Okay. I would say more exposure therapy, but Rizavi may die and Kindade may go completely mute." She tells them and James can only nod in solemn agreement at the awkward mess three pretty face made them. But then again they were only human.

* * *

* * *

As Adam walks into staff break room for his absolutely last cup of coffee for the night and finds Takashi sitting at a table watching aerial videos of their other pilots and pausing it so he could type out notes with his left hand on another screen. Even if he was more serious then before he left Takashi was always going to be a workaholic. When... when they were together Adam would find himself having to drag him back to their apartment often.

Seeing him there, it was like nothing change. But the white hair, missing arm, the scar across his nose and the fatigue in his eyes told Adam he carried something truly heavy with him and he couldn't even start to fathom. And the almost physical rift between them had Adam itching to fix something so they could have a semblance of normalcy back. Deciding that now was the best chance because he wasn't guaranteed another Adam clears his throat. Takashi startles and looks to him and glares at him like he's assessing an unseen enemy before he sees him and his face smooths out.

_What did they do to you? Was it all worth it?_

"Sorry Adam, I didn't see you." 

"It's fine. I just came in for some coffee."

"Well there should be plenty I just made a pot." He says as he nods back to the counter.

"Somethings never change," Adam says under his breath, "Takashi we need to talk." He says a bit louder.

Takashi's eyes become steely and his face becomes stony at Adam's tone. The same tone he used to break off their engagement.

"We've talked Adam." Takashi tells him coldly.

"No. We've talked at meetings. You've talked _at_ me about not being rude to the Prince. This, this is us talking about why you thought you needed to leave." Adam sternly tells him.

Takashi says nothing and stares silently back at him.

_So stubborn._

"Why Takashi?" Adam sighs heavily as all his emotions are poured into that simple question, "Just – you knew what you were capable of and you knew how I felt. The first time I let it slide. The second time I lied to myself, but with Kerberos I couldn't. Not after Titan."

"But nothing hap—"

"But it could have," Adam cuts him off harshly, "I saw the readings! Everything! If you froze up just a bit like you did later on you could have been gone. Kerberos was the final straw."

Some of the tension in his shoulders drop at that as he looks away with only a hint of guilt.

"I know. I thought about it and you were right to leave me. I-I didn't value you like I say I would —"

"That's right, you didn't! You didn't value my love!" Adam barely contains his anger to a harsh whisper as he lets all his emotions that have been bottled up pour out like lava and burns just as much to even admit.

"I just expected......And I can't even begin to tell you how angry I am. Not only did you risk your life, but you didn't seem to see that I wanted you to be around no matter what, and you _still_ left. And while you were gone you became a legendary hero and now have prince as your partner. Excuse me if I'm hurt that you found everything you needed without me. That you left me for something I could never give you." He whispers wetly and blinks away the bitter tears collecting in his eyes.

He hears a chair being pushed back and watches as another pair of boots enter his vision. Looking up, Adam sees Takashi gazing down at him with a soft look that used to be common place for them.

"I didn't want to." Takashi says quietly.

"You should have tried harder." Adam mutters truthfully.

"I know. But I still care about you. And I am thankfully for all those years you cared and did love me back. We can never be friends like we were, but maybe we can be flight partners again?"

Adam looks away from those soulful and calming eyes as he thinks it over. He doesn't know what he wanted from this talk, but this is much better than what could have happened.

"Damn it Takashi. You're not supposed to be this easy to forgive." He says in a huff.

He sees Takashi smiling out of the corner of his eye as he says softly, "I have been told it is a horrible quality."

"Ha ... I didn't want to make you choose. I knew you cared, but I needed to hear it and and you didn't...So I left. It wasn't easy but I – it has to be the right choice."

Turning back to him and seeing the sadness, but understanding look he had Adam knew he had nothing left to say, "We'll talk more later Ta—Shirogane..... I am glad you came home safe." And quietly turning around Adam leaves him all over again.

* * *

Needing to talk to Shirogane comes earlier than Adam wanted as he needed to go over some attack plans with him McClain, Alastair, and Iverson, but so far he's had no luck. If he couldn't find him in the rocket lab he would call Keith and have him relay the message. Walking into the gigantic open room Adam is surprised to see only the prince, who is guts deep in a satellite particle barrier with his type of flightsuit half off with it awkwardly, but securely around his waist. He doesn't mean to stare, but it's impossible not to notices the lightning marks when he leans out of the top of the machine. They climb up his arms and shoulders and ends somewhere on his back, but his tank is hiding it. He's working on what looks like the last of three satellites with the third's top open and missing the hexagonal panels that would make the connections to the other satellites.

_Right now would be the perfect moment to talk to him too._

His traitorous mind tells him and even though this wasn't what he set out to do he can't deny this wouldn't be a great time to speak with him about the fight and everything else. Sighing heavily Adam clears his throat.  

"Ahem."

The prince jumps and almost falls into the satellite only to catch himself after his arms windmill for a few seconds. Turning to look back at him Adam watches as his face goes from surprise to annoyed very quickly.

"Do you know the whereabouts of Lieutenant commander Shirogane?"

"Shir— ah the Lieutenant commander isn't here and if he isn't in the analysis room I don't know. That's the last place I left him." The prince tells him stiffly as he turns around.

He turns back to his work, but starts muttering to himself as he clearly looks for something. Looking down Adam sees a pair of wire cutters and crimpers. Grabbing them and climbing the ladder Adam clears his throat again and passes the tools back to the prince.

"Oh. Thank you." He says hesitantly before going back to his work.

Adam can see that not only did he pick a bad time, but that he was definitely not wanted here. But he only gets to the top stair of the ladder before the prince is speaking again.

"I am sorry I don't know where he is. I would radio him but..."

"He'll be hesitant to pick it up at first." Adam finishes with some practiced ease.

"Right!" He exclaims before he's looking awkward and uncomfortable at the similarities of what just happened.

But he was talking to him and the schedule meeting wasn't for another hour.

"Are you doing this all by yourself?"

The prince nods sadly, "We're working as fast and efficiently as we can and while it would take five of your engineers for one I could probably get this done with one other person, but Hunk and Pidge are overlooking the other satellite teams and Sa—Dr.Holt? is in a meeting now."

"Usually we call him Commander Holt."

"Oh. Well it's hard to keep the titles straight when you meet them without them." The prince shrugs as he leans down back into the machine.

"I'll stay." Adam finds himself saying and watches the prince jump again.

Turning to him with a suspicious look he asks, "You... will?"

"I know enough around basic engineering to be of some help."

The prince stares at him before glancing back at the machine and while Adam waits for his answer he can't believe how anxious he was.

".....Okay."

The prince sounded unsure still, but he scooted over. So Adam takes off his jacket and folds it up to sit on and get to work with whatever the pr— Lance tells him.

Its just as they finish screwing the panels in that Adam makes his move, but he wasn't the only one.

"I apologize for the training room."

"I'm sorry I was a Teher's ass."

Adam looks over to where he would have seen Lance if he could in confusion and hears something fall and all of a sudden he's looking over at Lance's bewildered face. 

"Are you apologizing too?"

"Yes," Lips turning up in a halfway smile, "I may be upset about everything, but it's not really your fault. Except for the cockiness in the training room, but everything else was unwarranted."

"I was smug because I was right," Lance says smoothly, but continues, "but yeah I shouldn't have said what I did. It's probably why you blew up at me and you kind of had the right." He says nervously as he rubs at the inside of his left wrist.

_"Don't feel bad. I told you I had the skills to back up what I said. I'd give you some pointers in a few areas, like keeping a man, but you would probably brush them off."_

Adam can't say he was thrilled with what he had implied there, but he's also upset with how he reacted too. Calling Lance childish and braggadocio might be fine in maybe trash talking, but telling him he was obviously only holding onto Shirogane because he didn't have anyone else to deal with him and that Shirogane was just showing him pity until someone else worthy came along for him to spend his time with. Someone who had something to give instead of empty promises and titles. That hit was low even for him.

"Still—"

"Lets just says it was both side acting stupid and leave it at that." Lance says and holds his hand out to shakes.

Adam only debates for a second before shaking on it, "Alright."

They continue to finish the remaining two panels before Lance is peaking out from the other side of the satellite with an inquisitive and perplexed look.

"Keith grew up with you, correct?"

"For about three years."

A sly and dangerous smirk works its way onto his face and Adam has to blink to make sure he isn't looking at McClain because the two look eerily similar.

"I have so many questions."

Adam wasn't going to tell Lance anything, but on their way to the ship bay where the Atlas was they did end up trading a few stories about Shirogane and Keith's more rambunctious lives before the Kerberos mission. In return Lance provided some information about how they had been in outer space and what happened to both of them. He knows Lance is giving him a lighter version than what really happened, but he's not really privy to that anymore so he'll take it. All the weird sci-fi movie like events.

"Well that does explain that." Adam says finally after Lance explains Shirogane's hair change.

"Explains what?"

"Did you know he had a degenerative disease?" Adam look over.

"Yes he told me a bit after we started courting."

Lance says the word 'courting' so softly and Adam doesn't know if his culture's courting is the same as trivial dating or serious as it sounds, but sadly somewhere deep inside him – an infinitesimal part – wishes it would fail, but the rational side of him pushes it down.

"But I don't care." Lance tells him sternly and Adam watches how the cheerful person he was talking to was replace by the solider he briefly fought in the training room and knows Lance would stay so he continues with his revelation.

"It's gone."

Lance blinks at him before the realization takes hold and he stops to stare at him in fear as he quietly ask, as if he was scared of what he would hear.

"What?"

"I am apparently still listed as his direct medical contact so they told me."

"Why have an ultimate weapon when it only last so long?" Lance answers faintly as he looks to the floor, eyes still wide with shock, "I guess in a horrible horrible way Haggar actually did something good." 

"Knowing him he probably didn't hear much more besides he was well and left. I just wanted to ask if it was true." Adam tells him and watches as a small giddy smile grows on the other's face.

"Well I'm sure he'll be beyond ecstatic to hear this." He says with joy choking him up for a bit.

Surprisingly they find Shirogane in the ship bay getting an update about something related to the Atlas'. Lance immediately calls out for him and Adam watches with some humor as his eyes go from happy to confused when he sees him. The officer giving him the update quickly and quietly leaves probably fearing an argument.

"Hi Adam." He says neutrally.

"Shirogane." Adam replies the same.

"I'm surprised to see you ... and Lance together." He tells him looking between the prince glued to his side and him.

"Just being a good planetary host and walking your prince to you." 

"Yeah everything's fine now Shiro." Lance tells him with smile and a quick peck to his cheek.

"Oh. Oh good! That's great actually. I wanted you too." Shirogane stumbles for his words with a relieved and happy smile, which brings a smile to Adam's face at Shirogane wanting his approval too.

Chuckling lightly Adam tells him what he was here for, "I came to tell you about a another meeting in room E24 about attack strategies. We'll want to see you there in twenty minutes."

With him nodding Adam turns around to walks away, but is stopped suddenly.

"Wait!" Lance grabs his attention with his cry and turning back he ask, "Aren't you going to tell him?"

"Tell me what?" Shirogane ask.

Adam opens his mouth, but at the last second says instead, "I think you should be the one to do it."

Lance's eyes grow in surprise before he's smiling, "Okay."

"You know this is kinda creepy now." Shirogane says as he looks back and forth between them.

"Don't worry it's good news."

Adam only gets halfway down the hallway before the temptation is too great and he has to turn back to see the reaction. Shirogane's face grows more and more shocked before he's tearing up as he asks something looking completely knocked back. As Lance nod 'yes' he pulls him into a hug before spinning him around as they both start laughing.

They were happy.

He sees them – really sees them – and he can't be upset when he can tell how good they are for each other. All the veneer of him trying to hide the cold that usually grips his throat is gone when he witnesses this warm sight. He and Shirogane as flight partners weren't meant to be, with his own desire to eventually land. But Shirogane, as the astronaut he always wanted to be, with his alien prince were both adventurous souls and were meant to be with each other, obviously longing to always travel the stars together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So about Adam's last name, his official page only says mixed race and we don't get a last name so following in Dreamworks footsteps of different demographics being common place (which is so awesome) Adam is going to be one of those army base babies; Belgium father & African American mother.
> 
> Also I hope I did some of this 'after the break-up' talk right. We didn't see much with them, but I hope I'm not making Shiro look like the bad guy, its just that both wanted different things at different time and it may looked skewed through Adam's eyes, but yeah gettin' the Adam content that I needed.


	5. Keeping up with the Shiroganes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance meets some the Shirogane family, especially the two most important.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly I'm still royally peeved that Shiro gets no family mentioned and I am completely fine rectifying that.
> 
> And I swear, I actually do plan on getting one of these out on time eventually.

"Taka-kun!"

"Takashi!"

"Taka!"

Even getting the heads up with his name being yelled Shiro was unprepared for Ryou launching himself at him followed by Rie and Jake. Ryou being about the same body size as him makes Shiro crash into the floor immediately before he can even turn around and quickly the rest of the air in his lungs is violently removed as his cousins all start hugging him tightly. Eventually Ryou, who started all of this, is nice enough to get up and help him stand as Jake and Rie still hold on to him for dear life.

"Oh my God! It's so so so _so_ good to see you!" Rie cries as she squeezes his arm.

"I can't believe you're really here man!" Jake chimes in and hugs him tighter around his chest.

Some people would be upset if their family embarrassed them at their place of work, but not Shiro. Quite the opposite as he has tears in his eyes from seeing his family again for the first time since he's been back. Being able to see them again after so long is a fantastic and indescribable feeling. Even if they are embarrassing because he's sure he's blushing like crazy as Rie bends his head down and smothers his face with kisses like she did when they were younger making him chuckle lightly at the memory. Looking down at her she smiles back a watery and happy grin before her eyes become steely and Shiro remembers why the rest of his family silently calls her a sleeping bear as she starts to rain a flurry of hits to his arm.

"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again! We can't handle it." She yells punctuating each word with a hard punch to his remaining arm.

"I won't try." Shiro lets the sarcastic reply out before he can think as he rolls his arm since he couldn't rub it.

"Takashi!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He yells as he gets smacked in the head for his troubles.

"I hope so. I was so sure that Auntie Misako was going to have a heart-attack when we saw the message." Ryou tells him, throwing an arm around his shoulder and gently turning him away from Rie and her quick fist.

"I had hoped to tell you all in person." Shiro says softly looking to everyone.

"Well the world seeing you alive is definitely a way to get everyone informed." Jake smiles and goes to gently punch him in the right arm before he brown eyes widen as he look into his, "Taka-kun? Your hair and your arm..."

Shiro drops his gaze quickly to the floor as he is reminded of his changes. He had hoped they wouldn't have said anything.

"Well if you been fighting them pretty well I guess we don't have much to worry about." Jake tells him after a few awkward seconds and when Shiro looks up he can see his nervous smile at sticking his foot in his mouth.

Smiling slightly at the fixed statement Shiro nods. Jake wasn't always the best with conversation, but he would hear what he did wrong almost immediately and fix it.

"So how did you get in here?" Shiro looks back up at them with some of his guilt soothed and sees how they had changed.

Jake's usually blonde dye hair is it's natural brown, but its still in a low bun and it looks like he added a few more tattoos to his right sleeve too. Rie had let her hair grow out and it was just barely touching her shoulders of her business suit jacket and Shiro thinks he spies a wedding ring too. Finally looking to Ryou, it's like looking into a mirror almost, only he had brown hair and eyes with a softer face and now a small cut through his left eyebrow.

"We went through the front door. Thankfully one of us still has the same last name." Rie rolls her eyes as Ryou start shining his nails on his shirt.

"Its hard to carry the Shirogane name." He says with a level of smugness that everyone rolls their eyes at.

"What? Did Koji just fall off the globe?" Shiro chuckles as he looks over to Ryou, but Rie beats him to it.

"More like moved to Singapore."

"What?" Shiro looks between the two of them as he racks his brain for why again, "Wait, did he get that promotion he wanted?"

"If running his own business in aeronautics is a promotion then yes," Ryou smiles before throwing his arm out and dramatically point to the wall, "My brother is going places."

"Literally." Jake sighs at his antics.

"You have to tell me everything," Shiro laughs and looks around hopefully, "How is everyone? Whose doing what? How are your kids? Whose still dating or married?"

That's how Shiro spends most of his afternoon in the officers' break room talking, reminiscing, and laughing about their childhood, adolescence, and recent events. They asked about how it felt to be back on Earth and he had to admit in the two weeks he had been back it had been a weird mix of surrealism and nostalgia, though he was glad to be home and to had coffee back. It was a joke, but it seemed like a fact of life that Shiroganes lived on caffeine. They even tentatively asked about his time in space and what he had seen and how did he like it. He tried to explain it the best he could and he hoped that the excitement, wonder, and awe on his face could express the awesomeness of it all. That lead him to talking about his team and then talking about Lance, which Ryou – the big brother he never had – sees through his attempts to talk about everyone fairly and can tell he is well and truly heartstruck with him. And after minutes of ribbing of 'Was Lance there', 'Was Lance as beautiful as said astroanomaly you saw', 'Does Lance think the universe is in your eyes too' he finally tells them about his new boyfriend; how he was funny, kind, sweet, a fantastic storyteller, intelligent, and yes very hot. So caught up he didn't realize how much time had passed at all. With his recent life being nothing but haunting deadlines the pressures of that in this moment were non-existent. Right now he could be normal again.

"Shiro, there you are... and other people?"

At his name he turns around with a wide smile that Lance looks surprised at first before returning it fully as he walks over.

"Lance! Come meet three of my older cousins. Ryou, Rie, and Jake."

"The alien prince looks like an elf from Dungeons and Dragons." Jake says casually and gets knocked in the head for it.

But Lance just smirks as he leans on the high table they commandeered, "I get that a lot."

"I apologizes for my cousin's everything -"

"Ow."

"- I'm Rie Young. Pleasure to meet you. And I have to say you have to be the cutest and sexiest boy Taka-kun has dated." She says sort of canceling out Jake previous comment.

Lance blinks at her before turning and coy look to him, "Taka-kun?"

"It's just just a nickname." Shiro mutters as he looks away hoping his blush isn't too noticeable.

"Its so soft, just like you." Lance laughs lightly and leans up to kiss the top of his head and as his face smooths out he hears Jake and Ryou coo and aww.

Looking across the table Rie grins back at him with glee, "Keep him."

"Only if he wants me to." Shiro says bumping Lance's shoulder.

"I will. Who else is going to deal with your random smoldering looks and risky decision making." Lance smiles secretly and cause the whole table to fall into a round of laughter.

"Lance!" Shiro guffaws like he's insulted while his cousins continue to laugh.

"You do though," Ryou chuckles as his laughter dies down, "Still the nicest punk I've ever met."

They talk for a bit longer before Lance remembers why he came in the first place and it was because Admiral Sonda wanted to speak with him. Telling Lance that he'll be there in fifteen minutes he walks his family back to the front and with it some sense of comfort he has leaves too.

"When are you going to call them?" Rie asks as she opens her car door.

"Tonight," Shiro tells her with a heavy sigh as he leans against the door lightly, "I – I've been wanting to, but I'm afraid that they might not be strong enough to handle it. That I'll become a burden again."

"Takashi I get it. It was a huge shock for all of us. Emi actually start choking on her coffee and I couldn't make out what my mom was saying when she called, but you forget they're strong too and that you were never a burden. Your father and mother are two of the strongest individuals I've ever met. They can handle it and they want to hear and see you again because you're not a burden," Brushing the fringe of hair back Shiro looks up to her, not realizing he had looked down at all, "You've never been and you never will. Well maybe those delinquent years, but even than you still did your best to be there for them. Let them be here for you. You have Lance here, but a boy always needs his parents." She smiles gently at him just like his mom would.

"Thanks Rie."

"Older cousin always got to come to the rescue." She says with a fake put-out sigh and pats his shoulder before getting into her car.

Later that night Shiro finds himself in his brightly lit room and staring at his pad with mad butterflies flying in his stomach at the thought of calling after so long, seeing them after so long.

"Just do it Takashi. They miss you too." He mutters to himself. It's not a great speech, but it gets him to hit the FaceTime button as the same.

As it connects Shiro can't stop his restless movements as he waits. Each second is an hour and it feeling hot and cold at the same time as Shiro tries to calm himself.

"Shirogane residence. Haruto speaking."

When it connects Shiro is looking to his right out across his room, but everything stops and becomes hazy as he tries and fails twice to turn back to the screen with his emotions firing off wildly. When he turns back slowly to the screen he sees his Dad staring back in shock and the ingrained reaction of his childhood kicks in and has him checking on his Dad's health. His Dad has glasses now, but can still sit up in his wheelchair fine and is breathing fine and his hair is still black. But looking at him he looks like he had just been slapped as he stares at him still lost. Shiro opens his mouth to say something, anything, but he can't find the words either.

"Is it? Taka is it really you?" His Dad finally asks voice quivering with emotion.

He doesn't answer at first, he doesn't think he can right now as something around his chest breaks and he feel warmth spread through him at hearing that soft voice and seeing those kind eyes again. Shaking his head 'yes' as tears start to gather in the corner of his eyes Shiro gasps as he hears his Mom asking who he was talking to. She walks over to be in the screen too and he can see that the front of her hair had gone white in the front just like his had at first.

_Must be a family trait._

He thinks bitterly as it shows the stress and bitter pain she had gone through and how he done this, been a burden still in his absence. It makes his stomach roll before he's brought back to the present as he hears something break. Looking to the screen he's met with watery eyes with tears spilling from them rapidly and his Mom's hand intertwined with Dad's as she smiles through everything as she whispers,

"Takashi? Is it you? My little hoshi?"

His own tears start to fall and he can't stop them as he nods and tells them just as quietly, "Yes Mom, yes it's me. I'm home. I'm home."

 

When Veronica heard aliens were real she ultimately thought about the little green men before thinking about other movie portrayals. Commander Holt vouched that the ones coming here were nice and even jokingly compared them to Vulcans, which when she saw them would say it was an apt description. The funny thing out of all of this was that she expected to meet them and kind of talk to them in between drills and other briefings and that be it.

She didn't mean to adopt them.

She mostly blames her family for part of that, but she knows she's guilty of it too. First off, they're sweet. Like pure sugar sweet. Romelle is endlessly fascinated by everything and Allura is like every badass Disney princess Veronica grew up watching. Secondly they're funny. She may not understand or have hear of the creatures Coran is describing, but the way he does it is up there with her Tía Maria's stories. They're also unbelievably kind. The main reason the McClains have made the Alteans honorary members is because one; Lance found her lost niece and nephew when they wandered away from them and two; because when she found them he was keeping them entertained with some of his magic. When she had asked how he was so good with kids he told her not only did he volunteer most of his time working in the children hospitals of his planet, but he had one younger cousin that both he and Allura adored, but was sadly killed in the destruction of their planet.

Up until then Veronica was trying to stay neutral when she interacted with Lance since Adam was her best friend, but for the two months she had gotten to know him she couldn't help it. Plus, she was just aching to make them feel more welcome and have a home here, which lead to her inviting all four of them over for a dinner, her parents begging after she told them the sad truth that the Alteans couldn't go home. Now every other Saturday they were joining her family for dinner. The week was one such dinner and something just went off in Veronica's head as she looked to Shiro who was working on battlements for Mars if they need them.

"You haven't taken Lance to meet your parents yet."

It was more of a statement then a question and over these months she thought she had a pretty good handle on how Lance would talk for hours about certain things, but a family dinner never came up.

"What?" Shiro turns to her slightly from his smartboard to look in her direction.

"You haven't have you." Veronica whispers back as she continues to test connections with the planet and its red neighbor that now are only seconds worth of waiting instead of minutes on her board.

They were near the back of the main commutations lab as they were working on off planet problems while the front of the room was working out and testing the radio shorthand that they would use when under attack. In a word, they were all alone and it was the perfect time for her to mess with Shiro again.

"Why does – How do you know I haven't?" Shiro hisses as he stops what he was doing.

"He would have told me at my family dinner night." She says nonchalantly and not sparing a glance for him as she checked the next connection this time a lunar one.

"Right. Is he enjoying them?" Shiro ask softly and when Veronica looks over she can see he's genuinely curious.

"Yes, but he would probably enjoy going to one with your family more. It's not like you have anything to worry about." 

"What do you mean?" Shiro doesn't turn back to her again, but she can see him peering out of the corner of his eyes.

"Well Adam said they loved him when they met him and you obviously have a type. Lance is like a more fun, alien version of Adam. And Adam was a more stern version of your first crush, Craig? Charles? Constantine?" Veronica smiles as she already knows Shiro will correct her.

"Curtis." He grunts.

"Curtis. Right. Man you embarrassed yourself good that first time." She sighs dramatically as she tries to keep from laughing, especially when she can see Shiro's eyes narrow as he draws lines a little bit harder on the luminous board.

Veronica can laugh about it now even though at the time she was pissed. It was the first year they were here, neither had been in the primary education sections since Veronica was working on her studies for a visa and Shiro came in late for a reason that wasn't disclosed. So they both got there at age eighteen while most of the students knew each other since they were fourteen. The professor of the communication and engineering lab put them together so they could meet each other and become friends.

They became the opposite.

It was all because Curtis had turned around to say hi before lab really got started and even she could see the small hearts in Shiro's eyes when the other cadet smiled at him. And then they got bigger when Curtis complimented Shiro on an answer he gave during an earlier class they had together. Throughout the lab Shiro tried to show off for Curtis and found a way to create a small electrical fire that burned their set-up much to Veronica's annoyance and growing anger. And then later on he showed off again and completed a simulation right after her, beating her score and using it to talk up Curtis again. Feeling annoyed and competitive she one-up him in the shooter course and rubs it in, starting what dissolves into a rivalry of constantly trying to fight for the best spot academically and in skills. It was also how he ultimately met Adam too since he became her friend and most of her other interactions were with Shiro about who was better at what. With them dating she had brought down the teasing some, but now it was open season again.

"Either way, I don't see it." Shiro tells her quietly.

"Really?"

"Really." Shiro says stiffly.

"They all have cute smiles, have fiery personalities, are hard workers, have nice dark skin, and of course," Veronica listed off before gleefully telling her favorite thing she notice, "those long legs."

The sputtering was not something she was expecting, but she loved it anyway as he tries to say something against it with his eyes as big a dish plates as he shook his head 'no', but she stop that real quick.

"Don't act all saintly like you don't know what I'm talking about golden boy. I'm pretty sure everyone has seen you thirsting after those legs. I sure did when Adam would swing his ass out of the jet. You would watch them all the way to the showers."

Shiro's ears turn increasingly bright red and being the big sister she was Veronica couldn't let a taunting pass. Plus, this was too easy.

"Honestly, I don't know how you get any work done with Lance walking around in that spacesuit or his armor."

"I try to focus on other things." He answers too quickly.

But she just smiles pleasantly as she recalls two of her favorite memories of the many times that prove his tactics don't work.

"I distinctly have two memories of you trying to do that after doing laps with Curtis and falling back into the pool and later when Adam was going for his jet and you walked into a wall when leaving the hanger."

The unimpressed stare she gets has her biting the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling too wide or cracking up.

"McClain," Turning to her name she see Adam standing behind her with a stern look, "I hope you're not bothering Shirogane while he's trying to do important work."

"Maybe." She says not really caring if he gets upset or not.

But as his frown turns into a small, but clearly amused grin she counts it as a win. 

"Keep up the good work."

She does giggle a bit at the sad face Shiro has from Adam siding with her, but eventually she gets back to work and finishes her check-up and goes to the front of the room to give Commander Sagan her findings. But before doing that she walks over to Shiro, who gives her a bemused glance, and says,

"Hey, I was serious. You should ask him."

After getting her reassignment on how to fix and boost the signals Veronica walks back over to hear that Shiro had taken her advice as she hears Shiro talking to Lance about meeting up later to talk about something.

"I'm free after working on the engines for the Atlas around three. I can meet you at your room at three-thirty." Lance's voice comes over quietly.

"That perfect. I'll see you then." Shiro whispers back with a sappy so in love smile.

"Okay, love you Takashi."

"Love you too Lance."

Hanging up the communicator Shiro types out two more things before saving his work and transferring it to his pad and sending other copies off to higher levels. Veronica can't help smiling feeling pretty good about herself until she notices that Adam isn't moving from where he was working on the other side of Shiro. Stopping her work and looking over she can see that Adam was frozen with the marker raised just above the board, but made no other moves to do anything. Walking over she is surprised to see so much sorrow and grief in his eyes as he keeps staring forward. 

"Adam?"

She questions quietly and at first he doesn't move so she thinks she didn't speak loud enough, but before she tries again he say softly in a constricted voice,

"I knew I lost him, but I guess I didn't really realize it yet."

"What do you mean?"

"His name. He lets him call him by his first name." He whispers as he turns his sadden gaze to her and she remembers how excited Adam was to be able to use Shiro's name.

"Oh Adam."

He shakes his head softly, "McClain – Veronica it's fine. Shirogane hasn't been mine for awhile. It's fine. I - it's just odd to be reminded about it. And don't get upset at Lance, I know you like him."

She tries to bluster against the comment, but he sees right through it with a soft smile.

"I know about the dinners Ronny."

Face twisting up into an ugly frown at her hated nickname, "Ergh don't! And yeah I'm not going to get mad at him as long as you don't."

"I don't have the need to." Adam says with a soft sigh before going back to his work. 

Veronica can't do more than nod and go back to her station feeling numb as her elation from before is cancelled out by her disappointed of what she had done.

_Well that why the phrase is all's fair in love and war. Though the good and the bad sides of love are looking a bit worst than war right now._

 

So far this particularly quintant was going great. His friends and him completed drills fairly easily through the asteroid belt, then there were no problems when installing the first of the Atlas' booster engines, and now he was with his boyfriend enjoy one of the quirks of him being a higher rank officer – a room to himself. He was quite enjoying the fact that they could just get away for a bit, although this time it seemed Shiro wanted a bit more then their usual talking or cuddling as he hadn't stopped kissing him since they got into his room.

Picking himself up to sit on the desk he had been backed into Lance gains enough height to easily kiss down into Takashi's mouth and pulls him flush against his body. Takashi leans away from the kiss, but doesn't stop kissing up Lance's neck before leaning up to nip at the edge of his ear causing Lance to groans at the shiver of desire that shoots through him. Grabbing a fistful of boyfriend's hair, Lance guides him back to his lips to continue the passionately deep and hungry kiss from before. Takashi offers no resistance and pushes him down gently until Lance feels his hand on the back of his head, lowering him to the desk beneath him before drawing away. Lance whines at the lost and only gets a soft kiss to his forehead prompting him to open his eyes as he catches his breath after that kiss.

"What – What did I do to deserve that?" Lance smiles up cheekily as he still gasps for air.

"Just being yourself." Takashi smiles back with a look so full of love that Lance kind of wants hide away from the intensity of it. 

Focusing on the ceiling above him he finds himself looking to Takashi's white hair and reaches up to gently slide his hands through the snowy locks.

"Makes you look like the brightest star in the galaxy." He hums softly, finally breathing normally again.

"I'm very sure that's you, but now we match." Shiro replies leaning in closer.

"We do."

Shiro places another delightfully delicate kiss on his lips before moving away again with a shy grin. Lance knows he's frowning for not getting anymore of those amazing kisses, but waits to see what will happen next.

"So I was thinking." Shiro says in a jovial tone.

"Nothing dangerous this time."

"Nothing self-sacrificing I promise." Shiro rolls his eyes in amusement.

"Okay or 'hit me' as you all say." Lance says as he relaxes against the desk.

"I know you've met some of my family briefly."

Nodding along as he thinks about his boyfriend's cousins Jake, Rie, and his carbon copy Ryou, "They were sweet."

Shiro nods to himself before looking to him very shyly, but not saying anything immediately. Bringing his hands from his hair Lance slides them to his shoulders and starts massaging them to loosen him up. From the appreciative smile Lance knows it was need and it calms him enough to tell him why he brought up his family.

"Well I talked to them and my parents and well some of my family is going to get together to eat this weekend and - and I told them about you and I want you to meet them. If you want to." 

Lance stares up in surprise and sees how Shiro is struggling to keep eye contact with him as he waits for an answer, but as the emotion slips away the feeling of contentment takes up a place in his chest.

"Of course I'll come meet your parents Shiro. I loved to."

And the giddy joy on his face make Lance think of a happy yupper as he grins back so wide with flushed cheeks that Lance can't help but to lean up to kiss that adorable face and soft lips.

* * *

Looking at the watch Hunk gave him to tell Earth time Lance sees that he's a few doboshes early as he walks into his Castle's hanger. With the time to spare he chooses one of the pods and starts to go through a systems check so their quick flight to San Francisco is calm.

As he does Lance wishes the hanger wasn't kept so cool as it was making his skin raise from the cold. Not sure what one wears when going to meet Earth parents he put on his favorite and most basic piece of clothing he had found on Earth.

Overall shorts!

They were honestly some of the best things they had here fashion wise and he had found the two pairs he own when Pidge and her mother invited him and Romelle to come into the city with them. They had gone to a building called a thrift store where Pidge told them these clothes were given away because people out grew them or didn't want to wear them anymore. He had found the pairs of overalls and once he saw a picture of what they looked like on he had to get them. Thankfully instead of doing their fountain dipping like they had before Colleen had been nice enough to buy them because he and Romelle needed some Earth clothes and they were cheap. So dressed in his shorts he put on a shirt with pale green waves and clouds across it and pulled the jacket from his first date with Shiro, since the shirt was a crop top too though one of his more modest ones, and finally the boots he was so fond of. Zipping the jacket up helps a bit, but when he sees Shiro walking over he get excited to be in the warm sun again. And with the way Shiro is dress he feels that his attire is perfectly fine since he's dressed in the pants called blue jeans and a simple black shirt that reaches his elbow while the other was folded up and pinned.

The flight was only an hour, but it felt shorter as they neared the city Shiro grew up in, a place called Half Moon Bay – Lance has to chuckle at the irony of how Shiro went pass the moon and beyond – because soon they're landing the pod in stealth mood in a park and walking down a street with an adorable amount of houses that just feels so relaxed. Stopping in front a blueish grey single story house that took up quite a bit of space Lance can feel his heart jump up into his throat and can't swallow for how dry it is too. So hyper focus after Shiro knock he jumps when he feels a hand slide into his. Turning to glance at Shiro nervously he only looks back with a soft grin and gives his hand an encouraging squeeze.

"They'll love you."

The person that lets them isn't his parents - but an aunt Evelyn, his mother's sister according to Shiro - and hugs him tightly before rushing them inside. After taking off their shoes Lance follows Shiro to a sizable room where seven other people are. They all rushed Shiro like his aunt had and hug him tightly that if it wasn't for his hair Lance is sure he would have lost him in the crowd of relatives. Lance watches the exchange and hears the family as they ask him how is he and what's happened and moves to stand by the wall, but a blonde woman still sitting on the couch waves him over with a gentle smile. It turns out she is Daichi, one of Shiro's younger cousins, girlfriend. But before he could get pass introductions with Rose someone is tapping his shoulder. Turning around he comes face to face with a man that looks like an older Shiro except for his black hair and glasses. The smile and posture and size of the man were all the same even as he sat in a wheelchair.

"Mr. Shirogane?" Lance asks softly.

"Yes." He answers in a kind tone, "It's nice to meet you Lance. Takashi doesn't stop talking about you." 

"Dad."

Looking to the huddle of Shiroganes Lance is surprised to see he made it out as Shiro quickly closes the distance and kneels so he can give his father a warm and tight hug. Its a beautiful and special moment that has Lance wishing he could have one as well with his parents, but seeing the joy on Shiro's face and hearing the relieved voice of Mr. Shirogane whispering 'my son' makes Lance happy to witness this touching moment for someone else.

"Where's mom?" Shiro ask when he finally steps away from his father and stands up looking around for her.

"Making sure that the bluefish cooks right." Comes a melodious and sassy voice from Lance's right.

Turning to the voice a petite woman with dark brown hair and a shock of white in her bangs, reminisce of Shiro's white strands, stands in the large archway of her house – that he now knows is for Mr. Shirogane – and watches as Shiro once again moves quickly moves to engulf another parent, though this time lifting her off her feet and even spinning her around. After setting her down she pulls Shiro down to her level and places multiple kisses on his cheeks before hugging him again. Making her way over to the couch that only Lance was only occupying as Rose had joined who he assumed was Daichi in his chair he tries to stand up, but Mr. Shirogane places a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"I can move —" 

"No. You're fine."

Shiro and his mother join Lance on the couch he immediately reaches out for Lance, taking his hand and giving it a comforting squeeze, it calms him down a bit, but he still feels weird about not letting him sit by both his parents. He so busy worrying about it he doesn't hear the conversation happening before his attention is taken by someone fake coughing loudly. Looking towards it Lance's gaze meets a woman with short cropped hair and dressed in jeans, a tank, and a over large jacket who waves at him with mirth twinkling in her eyes. And it only gets worst when he waves back to her.

"So, not to be rude or anything," The woman says with a smirk, "but are we all going to ignore the fact that Takashi brought back a boy right after he came back from space."

Everyone surprisingly just rolls their eyes at her comment almost making Lance laugh at the perfect synchronous of it.

"Hey! If I get the third degree with Nick I think its only fair you introduce us."

"If you won't make a big deal out of it." Shiro tells her.

"Taka. Everyone makes a big deal out of everything in this family. Its a rule." The only other older gentlemen -likely an uncle - lightly chides.

With a chuckle Shiro agrees, "True. This is Lance and well..." He trails off looking to him for how much more he should say.

"Should I get rid of the disguise?" Lance whispers.

"Only if you want to." 

"I – I guess I should." 

Shiro nods and sits back up, facing his family, "Okay so there's one more thing we have to tell you."

Lance always found the feeling of changing back like cool air brushing against his skin as he changes his ears, eyes, his cheeks, and hair all back to normal. He watches, a little proud, as everyone's eyes are on him and that they're all filled with awe at this simple ability.

"Wow," The woman who ask says faintly, "I was not expecting that."

"You're um..." Rose gasps and tries to speak, but Lance can see that she still a bit lost.

"An alien. Yes." He says as he plays with a stand of curly hair that curls around his cheek.

"Lance is also a prince. His father is the one who create the machine called Voltron." Shiro adds as he shuffles a bit closer to him as well.

Its quiet for a tick too long before the same woman is chuckling lightly, "You really know how to find them don't you."

That seems to shake off some of the weird tension in the room as everyone relaxes back into their seats.

"So do most aliens look like you?" Evelyn asks, looking a bit flustered as she did.

"I can't speak for all aliens, but a few do." Lance answers.

"How did you change?" Daichi asks next, with Rose nodding along in interested.

He gives them a friendly smile, "Just something I can do."

"Can you do other things?" Another man, slightly older than Shiro, asks who looks like he was trying not to look too excited.

"Alright. Alright," Mr. Shirogane calls out gently stopping any other questions. Shaking his head he looks over apologetically before continuing, "How about we not scare the poor boy back to his planet and introduce ourselves."

Shiro looks over concerned, but Lance shakes his head. They don't need to know, it supposed to be a pleasant night where Shiro gets to reconnect with his family, not let everyone be concerned about his history. But Lance does turn his face up to Shiro for a quick kiss to his cheek to make him feel a bit better before sitting back and listening to Mr. Shirogane introduce him to half of the family he's only heard about.

"I'm Haruto and the lovely woman to your right is my wife Misako. In the furthest right chair is Mark, Evelyn's son. Next to him is Evelyn, who is Misako sister. Tomoe and Daisuke," He gestures to the older man and woman who sat across from him," are my younger and older brother. Next to them 'the not to be rude' one is Cheyenne, Tomoe's youngest and Daichi is her brother. And this is his girlfriend Rose."

Lance nods along with each one and in return answers some more questions. At one point he does tell them sadly it was only his sister and their advisor that are left of his family, but pushes pass it to says he was doing better and asks them about Shiro's childhood instead, citing he probably didn't tell him the whole truth. This resparks the conversation between everyone and its filled with such vibrant stories from everyone, though Shiro and his cousins 'take the cake' as the Humans say with their amount of wild stories. Lance sort of gets lost in all the talk, but doesn't care as it was still fantastic to watch and be apart of. And it only get more interesting when the older relatives leave for the kitchen to talk and he's asked to play a game with the cousins called Uno that gets competitive really fast, but is no less fun, even when Mark wins all three rounds. Sooner than he thought they're all sitting down for dinner that doesn't smell richly spicy and festive like Veronica's home, but tangy and soothing. Some foods sit on heating plates still and they all take their time to past plates around if asked so no one is burned and that everyone can get something. In the middle of Shiro describing the difference between sashimi and sushi Misako ask from her end of the table, 

"How did you meet? Besides in space."

Lance glances down at her and Haruto and their expectant look and can't help the nervous giggle that escapes his lips, "I kind of meet him on Earth and - haha - spirited him away back into space."

The silent response is about what he was expecting as everyone looks at him with an indescribable stare.

"What?" Mark asks, but thankfully Shiro clears up his vague answer.

"I was capture by the Galra on Kerberos, but escaped with some help and got back to Earth about two years ago. Keith and some other cadets, Hunk and Pidge, found me and helped me to safety. Apparently while I was gone Keith was expelled from the Garrison -"

"That explains why we could never get in touch with him." Misako says sadly.

"Yeah, but he's doing better now. Apparently he got drawn out to this outcrop in the desert where there were these hieroglyphs of the Blue Lion and with Hunk's help they found out it was to emulate a signal that lead to the Blue Lion. It was sent here so the Galra couldn't used her to attack innocent planets."

"They woke me up from my sleeper pod," Lance continues, "and I only got their names before Blue was telling me that the Galra found us and I was flying back into space and to our Castle for safety and to regroup. Then... well we learned how to form Voltron correctly —" Lance gazes up and meet Shiro's equally tender gaze.

"And since then we been flying around through space building up a coalition of planets to fight against the Galra." Shiro finishes softly.

"With five giant lions?" Daichi asks sounding beyond confused as he said it.

"And the Castle." Lance fills in.

"The Castle flies?" Rose eyes widen in shock as does everyone else as he nods.

A low whistle breaks through the bewildered silence, by Cheyenne again, as she leans around Mark to look towards him and Shiro.

"Wow, I wish I could aspire to grow up to be an anime protagonist too." She says wistfully as she place a hand over her heart. This gets a few sparse laughs as Mark lightly punches her in the arm, "What?! Its true. Don't worry Lance its a compliment honestly." She says in between her giggling.

"I'll explain later." Shiro whispers.

"An Earth thing?" Lance guess.

"A small part of the population Earth thing."

"Oh."

"So ignoring Cheyenne's fantasy, what do you like about Earth?" Tomoe asks kindly, though not without throwing a point look over at her daughter.

He tells them how he's become fond of the desert surprisingly as he preferred the ocean, but it was probably because on his world they lacked the small life that Earth has readily in the sand rocky terrain. Also that he's flown over the largest ocean when he had free time. He found that it and the small islands scattered across it magnificent. He also tells them how he enjoys their music - mostly the 2010's and 30's - and that he really likes their fashion, like the multicolored shirts called tie-dye and most of all overalls, which is why he's wearing some tonight.

"So is it better than space?" Rose asks as she looks over to Shiro than back to him with a small secretive smile.

Lance can't stop the silly smile that breaks out across his face at what she getting at and a sweet compliment Shiro gave him once comes to mind at the wording of her question.

"Well Shiro thinks I am." Lance grins back at her.

Shiro puts down his skewer of cooked bird and looks over at him confused for only a tick before his eyes grow wide, his ears turn pink, and he shakes his head 'no' in a silent plead. But Lance is not known for letting an opportunity like this pass.

"He once told me that I was the only thing cooler than space. So I think Earth has some very great things to share." He teases as Shiro puts his head in his hand and groans.

"Aww!"

Mark and Rose coos while everyone tries to stifle their laugh. Expect for Cheyenne, who cackles loudly before leaning back in her chair and looking over at Shiro with a mischievous grin.

"Nerd." She calls out in a nasally joking voice and begins laughing again even when he reaches around Mark to shove her all the while with the same teasing grin.

Lance chuckles at the exchange as it starts a chain reaction not dissimilar from the dinners Veronica invites him to, but something about this dinner makes it better.

_No, not better. Just a little more right._

Lance thinks with a smile as he watches the family fondly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm saying Shiro and his dad have ALS, but in the Voltron world there's more stuff to stop it even though it doesn't cure it. So like they can stop it to a certain point, but can't undo damage already done so people with it live longer and are only somewhat disabled. With Haruto I'm going to say the deterioration got to his legs and spinal cord because of earlier onset than the doctors expected so they took measure to stop the spread and now he's fine.


	6. The First Battle for Earth, 2053

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So it begins...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so straight up guesstimating on years, but I already set up Shiro being 10 around 2035 so this is what I'm sticking to.
> 
> Also sixth times the charm!

Allura stands at the mouth of the corridor and feels a chill go through her as she stares down at a room she hadn't dare gone to since she had woken up in this new time. The lights were still turned off down this way and she knew if she walked forward they would start to light her way, though she wished they would stay off. Swallowing the pain, grief, and rising anger that seemed to dull with each quintant Allura takes a shaky step down the hall only for the first light above her to brighten instantly with an ominous click. Every couple of steps were followed by another damning noise as she got closer and closer to her destination. It seem too quick and too slow, but then she was standing in front of the doors that shone brightly with their detailing and offering a torrent of memories, both good and bad, as she continued to stare.

In the next tick she was standing inside the darken room and had to lean against the doors for the emotional state she was in. But in remembering her mission she pushs off and lets her muscle memory take her through the room to a lamp, a lamp on one of her parent's bedside tables. As the soft glow illuminates part of the bedroom she looks out to the sitting room she came through. This isn't the room she wanted, but it was a room she needed to be in for a bit. Sitting on the floor she lays her arms on the soft sheets and is surprised by the lack of dust before Allura realizes how Coran must have had their rooms cleaned regularly out of reverence for his title as caretaker and being a good friend. Sighing Allura sinks into the bed more and rest her head on her arms and bask in the solemn silence.

"Hello Mother," She starts and stops almost immediately from her throat clogging with emotions. But she pressed on, " I- we - we're okay. A'lanor and I. We're continuing the war and we're winning.... you should see us..... we're Paladins. It complicated, but I pilot the Blue Lion while A'lanor pilots the Red Lion."

Allura could almost see her look of confusion and a strained laugh falls from her lips at the image.

"Yes. We - we were both surprised it was..... it was. But now we're on a new planet in a young galaxy and some of their people are our other Paladins. They're great... I - I think you and Father would approve......," And a smile graces her lips as she thinks of one in particular, "Especially one in particular. Which is why I'm here. The Galra took something of his and I'm determined to give it back to him and I - I need your help. If you can hear me please guide me." Allura whispers as she stands slowly. 

With only a tiny bit of hope her prayer was answered Allura walks back to the sitting room and with the faint light from the bedroom goes towards her right to the closet. Stepping inside Allura presses the light on and makes her way to her Mother's side, but more importantly her Mother's jewelry. It was a smaller room off to the side and Allura remembers spending vargas in here trying on all of the necklaces and crowns, her love for all things sparkly probably starting in this very room. Looking at all the crowns Allura remembers them from when her Mother wore them to events or let her try them on. As she looks at the stands that hold the crowns Allura drifts in and out of these happy thoughts only for her eyes to lock onto one crown in particular. Walking to the far side of the semi-circle room Allura sees, just faintly, what looks like a small compartment at the back of the alcove. Tapping it to see if it was a trick of the refracting light she finds that it's not as it slides back revealing a cloth covered object. Taking out the obviously covered crown and removing the sheet Allura can't keep the gasp of shock at what she was looking at.

It was her Mother's wedding and coronation [crown](https://goo.gl/images/takijd).

In the center was the largest Balmera crystal – in terms of jewelry – that she had ever seen. She only saw paintings of it or watched the vids, but could never find it. And they don't do it justice to its elegance and simple beauty of the mineral as it shone with some supernatural brightness. She wasn't even thinking about it, but this was exactly what she needed. Her crowns didn't have many Balmera crystals and the largest one was in her regular crown and would not be enough to power Shiro's new arm. She knew her Mother had larger crystals for hers, but never in a million years did she expect this. Staring down at the crown with tears in her eyes and then glance around the room Allura smile to herself.

"Thank you Mother for hearing me."

 

As Shiro comes to he's blinking up at the dull white ceiling of the Garrison medical bay. Feeling stiff and kind of confused to why he's here he pushes down on the bed to sit up and notices immediately that something is wrong. Or maybe different is better, as he closes his hand – no – both hands. Raising his right arm Shiro sees that he's in possession of his arm again, all shiny and new. Slowly the memories of Allura and Sam presenting him with a hologram of a new arm that would connects to where the last bit of the Galra tech was and be molded to the same size and dimensions of his left arm. Looking down Shiro takes in the steel grey and faintly glowing blue of the new appendage and is surprised to see it floats. Not much, just where the joint for his elbow should be, but it doesn't stop Shiro from curling his arm for a rep or creating a fist. 

And he's a bit loopy and uncoordinated, but he can tell – if he could – he would be crying and jumping for joy over having an arm that he considers his again. 

In the next instant someone is placing their hand on his shoulder. Turning to them his brain sluggishly catches up to who is sitting there.

"Glasses. Sam. Hey Sam." He says with the words coming out choppy as his slowed brain has him saying his context clues out loud for himself.

He was so focused on noticing the new intricacies of it that he didn't notice Sam or Allura walking into his room or sitting down.

But Sam just smiles back, "Hello there Shiro. How are you feeling?"

"I have feeling." Shiro tells him in awe and looks back at where he's petting the sheet.

"Yes, I made sure that you would have not only a wide range of motion, but also touch." Says a calm and collected female voice to his left. 

Turning towards it he sees Allura sitting down in a chair smiling gently at him.

"Alluuuur!" He calls out happily.

"Good morning Shiro." She replies holding her hand up to hide her giggling.

"Mornin'."

"Okay will be out of your hair in a minute, but we just want to tell you quickly what your arm can do and we want you to do some quick exercises. Okay?"

Shiro tries to nod, but that makes the world go sideways so he decides speaking is better, even if it's a bit slurred, "Okay."

"So this is like the first version of your arm, but this comes with a new function. If you ever want to take it off there's a thumbprint scanner on the under side of your bicep," And Shiro watches as Sam slowly rotates his arm to show him where it was, "that can detach it. It can easily be reattached by moving it close enough to the relay connectors so the arm can pick up on it magnetically."

In the back of his mind he knows that's a great thing to have, if he's ever just needs a moment away or he just wants to he can take the arm off. He wants to tell them thank you for this, for having options like this, but something else was on his heart. Flopping over to squint at Allura she smiles back at him and he whispers to her,

"My elbow is missing. My arm floats."

"Yes it is and yes it does. It's Altean inspired, though Sam was able to make your arm almost a complete replica of your own." She tells him gently.

"I look sooo cool."

"Yes you do," Sam chuckles drawing his attention back to him, "Alright Shiro I need you to do seven quick tests so we can see how the arm is working."

"Okay."

As Sam talks Shiro through the test Allura watches his face and has a pen ready to write down if at any moment his face contorts in discomfort. He has to touch his nose, make a fist, and rotate his wrist, which were all very easy. The next task was to place shape pegs into the correct shape which was easy after the triangle – he had squeezed a little too hard. Sam told him it was fine and they would work on it in therapy. The toughest was writing his name since he hadn't wrote anything in three months so it looked bad, but still readable. Next he had to hold his arm out in front of him and had to keep it up while Sam pushed on it. He pushes on his upper arm first and it kind of tickles, but he doesn't let his arm go down at that or when Sam pushes on his lower arm or his whole arm.

"You're doing great Shiro. I just need you to reach out like this," Spreading his arms out horizontally, "and then we're done."

He does and he feels something pop in his back and he sighs at how loose his back feels. After a few seconds, he thinks it's a few second, Allura or Sam haven't said anything and looking to them they're both looking to his right in surprise. Wondering why Shiro looks over and sees something like his arm is sticking out of the wall.

_Wait... is that my arm?_

"It is." Allura answers him and it takes Shiro awhile to realize he said that out loud.

"The wall is smooth."

"That's remarkable that it can stretch out like that. Can you bring it back?" Sam asks.

Shiro squints and focuses as hard as he could making the arm shake before it's slowly moving back to him. He grins widely as his arm comes back to the bed and lays down on the soft sheets like it should. 

"That was – something. Thank you Shiro. We're done with your tests. Do you think you're up for some visitors?"

_Yes of course he wants to see them._

"Alright." Allura laughs and gets up for the door.

"I said that out loud."

"Yes you did." She says as she opens the door and Keith rushes in followed by Hunk, Pidge, and —

"Lancey Lance, my Kitten!"

Lance's little marks start glowing super bright and it looks like his face is getting red to, why though, it wasn't hot in here.

"That's a mouth full." Pidge smirks.

"It usually just the last part." Lance murmurs as Allura pats him on the shoulder.

So he wasn't warm, he was sad.

"Are you upset?" He ask and Lance instantly jumps in surprise before coming over to hold onto his real hand and smiling tenderly at him.

"No I'm fine. How are you?"

To Shiro it seems like a long time trying to explain his arm – in reality it was only fifteen minutes – and how great it is and what it can do. And if he repeats certain phrases again they all still smiles and nod along. When he finally tires himself out everyone leaves, but not before Keith turns off the light and Lance tucks him into bed leaving Shiro to drifts off to sleep, dreaming about actually being able to hold Lance in his arms again.

* * *

* * *

Climbing down another shallow cliff Shiro really wishes he could have worn his Black Paladin suit so he could have made use of the jetpack, but with the damages from Lotor and no time to fix it he had to use a Garrison spacesuit with only short jet burst. Finally sliding down the rest of cliff he finds himself at the bottom of the chasm, but that gut feeling that somethings here doesn't go away. It only gets stronger as he turns towards the only cave down here and with nothing else on the sides of the ravine Shiro travels deeper into the balmera not sure what he'll find.

Two weeks ago the Garrison finally completed the Atlas and she was the most beautiful ship Shiro had ever seen, besides the Lions. Just standing on deck gave Shiro a rush and he could just tell she'd would be a force to be reckon with. But for as amazing as she was she couldn't be powered up by an means – at least any means on Earth. The extra help Coran, Allura, and Lance put into designing and outfitting the ship meant a different source was needed to be used.

Balmera Crystals.

And it wasn't the only defense that needed crystals. Even some of the in-production MFE's would need crystals to strengthen the force shielding. But with the Milky Way and Andromeda being relatively young galaxies they would be forced to look further. But they couldn't leave the Earth only partial protected since the last of the satellites were just being finished since the first set were sent to Mars and the second to the moon. Luckily Lance pointed out a single Lion could go and collect what they need and the Lions have the necessities to live in for a short journey. The closest Balmera was only fifteen million light-years away and with the Teludav it would only take four days to get there and another four to get back. A meeting with the Garrison was held and while Sonda and even Sam weren't too favorable with it Adam came to their side citing that the sooner this was done the better. Which was true, just because they've had four months of silence doesn't mean Sendak hadn't changed his plans and was closer than they thought. That swayed them enough to let Lance go and somehow he was to tag-along – not that he was complaining – he just doesn't remember volunteering.

The trip itself was fine and relaxing and the landing was even better since the Galra hadn't made it out to this part of the universe. The balmera they landed on seemed smaller than the one Shay is from and Lance told him its only 80 thousand years old – only – but its teeming with crystals. Most were about the size of a softball, which was perfect for their defenses, but anything bigger couldn't be seen on the surface. Before Lance could even suggest it Shiro told him they had to go deeper and that they had to go into the canyon just west of them. Shiro wasn't sure how he knew, he just did, and Lance didn't question him either saying he would load the ones they had gather and meet him down there. Now as Shiro enters into the mouth of the cave he only sees small crystals lining the wall.

_This is what I get for going on gut instinct._

Sighing in defeat he turns away to leave, but something just tugs at his mind wanting him to go back. With a reproached groan he turns back around and walks to the farthest side which can't be more than ten feet. There he lazily let his gazes run over all the crystals before he's whipping his head to the left as he sees something he hadn't seen before.

A white balmeran crystal.

Leaning closer to make sure his eyes are playing tricks on him Shiro notices it's not only white, but also that it almost like its humming softly, like a radiator.

"What did you find?" The hand on his shoulder and the words spoken too close to his ear have Shiro spinning around and ready to lash out before seeing that it was just Lance.

"Lance don't do that. I could have hurt you." He tells him through gritted teeth.

Lance smiles both parts apologetically and cheeky, "Sorry. But don't worry I'm quicker than you so you don't have to worry. So what did you – by the Ancients!"

Lance crouches down to look at the same crystal that held Shiro's interest and his awed and reverent expression is brightened by the mineral.

"What?"

"I – you – you see the white crystal too right?" Lance turns to him quickly, looking more and more excited.

"Yeah, is it important?"

"Shiro you found a compact crystal." Lance whispers in a high voice that sounds like it explains everything yet Shiro has no idea what.

"Is ...that good?" He ask unsure.

"Yes!" He shouts, "A compact balmera crystal contains infinitely more power than a regular battle class size one. Likely even more than the one we used for the giant Teludav."

Shiro's eyes widen as he looks back at that small crystal in disbelief. There was no way something just a few inches shorter than his open hand was that powerful.

"I know it seems unlikely, but they fire off large amounts of energy and that energy flows from one lattice to another and when it can't complete the connection it will overlap over all the lattices it came from before going off in a different way and repeating the cycle making it stronger. These are so rare to find on balmeras because the whole creature radiates energy. And you manged to find it. Maybe you're like a good luck charm."

Shiro grins down at him, "Maybe, but I doubt it."

"Hmm. Maybe the crystal in your arm might have lead you here." Lance wonders out loud.

Shiro blinks in surprise at that. He didn't think about that because he didn't think something like that would be possible, but with all the science fiction becoming fact in his life it wasn't insane to believe that the crystal in his lower arm was the cause.

"Maybe it did." He whispers as he looks down at his arm where the crystal lay.

"Either way we have it and this will be perfect for the Atlas." Lance says happily as he settles on his knees ready to remove the crystal.

"Okay do your thing."

Lance was about to lay his hands down around it, but stops before looking up to him, "Actually you should help me, you found it, it's only fair."

Tilting his head to the side Shiro squints at his boyfriend, not sure if he's being serious or nice.

"But I don't have any —"

But Lance just reaches up and takes his hand and pulls him down to crouch in front of the wall. Taking the hand in his grasp Lance lays it on the rocky wall and places his hand over it, fingers in between his. Shiro looks over with a unsure grimace, but Lance just grins back lightly with a calm expression, "Just try to feel the energy. You'll know what to do next."

Then Lance closes his eyes and starts to faintly glow. With nothing left to do but try Shiro closes his eyes and feels the energy easily pull on him and he lets go.

 

The tedious sound of keys clicking and monotonous responses fill Allura's ears as she steps into the Argos room. The officers below were aligning the placement and connecting the satellites they had finished for Earth that Romelle and Coran had been dropping off in the exosphere for the better part of three Earth hours. From the sounds of it the process was going well and two-thirds of the planet had the satellites up, but not yet activated. Walking up to Sam she lightly taps him on the shoulder to gain his attention.

"Ah, hello Princess what can I do for you?" Sam smiles as he moves his mic down to talk to her.

"I just wish to know where Lance and Shiro are."

Sam gives her a understanding look, "Coran just called in to say they're fine."

"That's good," Allura nods to herself, "How is the deployment going? I can see that progress has been made but..."

"I won't lie this is slow going, but not everything in a war effort is quick pace." Sam huffs anxiously as he turns back to the wide monitor tracking the Castle.

"We're definitely not moving like those yalmores Coran is always talking about." Iverson grunts.

"Yes the administrative and militarization side of this is quite mind numbing," Allura agrees with a grimace, "I sometimes feel like I'm back in my policies classes learning the proper way to write out and file a new law."

Iverson turns to her and looks like he was going to tell a story, which Allura always found funny, but before he could Sam is interrupting it with answering someone from the lower deck.

"Go ahead officer."

"Commander, the Ares base command said they're getting some weird readings and they can't make out what is causing the energy spikes." A man's voice comes over the room speakers.

They all look to each other in confusion causing Sam to ask the officer to pull it up on the left screen. Looking to the highest screen Allura stares at them with familiarity itching at the back of her throat.

"Do they look like something Princess?" Iverson ask as he comes over to look at the signals too.

Clicking her teeth in frustration she turns to Sam, "I'm not sure. Can you call up Coran again?"

Nodding to her he walks up to the control panel, "Gaia base to Castle."

"Castle to Gaia base. What seems to be the problem?" Coran cheerful visage pops up on the main screen and Allura's surprised to see that instead of the bridge he was in the largest hanger.

"Coran do you understand these energy spikes?" Allura asks and Iverson sends him the image to look at.

Coran's eyes trail off to the side of his pad and narrow as he looks at the signal, "That can't be right," He whispers as he raises his hand to his headmic, "Romelle. Yes. Are you using the Teludav? Okay, I was just checking."

With Coran asking his question Allura knew exactly what these are as Coran confirms, "Princess these are Teludav ripples."

"But Romelle just said — " In that instant a shock of ice shoots through her like lightning before red hot fury overtakes her.

"Haggar!" She hisses.

Pivoting to Sam and holding her hand out for the mic she ask for the officer to call the Ares base and have visual of where the signal was coming from on the main screen hoping to Ancients that it wasn't who she feared.

"What's happening Princess?" Sam asks as he takes the mic back.

"Those are Teludav ripples. When they're created they're ripping a small bit of the dimensional fabric to bend space around it before rezipping as it were. Haggar is a corrupted Altean who has figured out the ways of a Teludav and if she's found out about our move to this planet she could send a fleet." She explains as she wait the few anxious ticks it takes for the screen to show the begins of lightning in space.

As it crackles silently above the atmosphere of Mars it grows ominously in size to create three larger purple Altean runes lined circles with the tips of Galra cruisers emerging through them and swarms of drone fighters already spilling out.

"He's here." Allura whispers as her worst fears are realized.

Instantly there is a red light flashing in the corner of the upper room and two in the lower base follow quickly by a wailing siren.

"This is a code red! I repeat code red! Contact the base your assigned and relay the alarm. We're under attack." Sam calls out.

Soon the base is a windstorm of movement as Allura is sprinting pass other running personnel for Blue. Getting to her and putting her helmet on Allura's ears are filled with the voices of Iverson yelling for updates from the Artemis and Ares bases, while Sam is giving an update to Shiro as the former paladin outlines a quick defense for the Earth and to have the Atlas ready with essential personnel. As Blue jumps into the sky with a boost of energy she roars loudly, even shaking her hull with the strength of it and Allura can hear the other Lions' response and she knows the distress call from the Castle has been sent and Lance will be back in a matter of doboshes. As she nears the Castle's location everyone else is still deathly silent in her ears, Allura's throat tightens as her knees anxious bounce waiting for instructions. But after only a dobosh passes she decides if nothing comes through in another dosbosh she's going to fly to the moon and help defend from there. If Sendak got pass the moon before the rest of the array was up it would be a disaster. 

"Alright what's the plan?" Hunk's slightly out of breath voice loudly comes over her comms and Allura sighs in relief as it stops her from doing something inadvisable.

Looking to her left she can see spots of yellow, black, and green coming into view. 

"We need to split up for now," Keith tells them, "Hunk, you and I are going to hang back because we can take a hit and don't move as fast. Allura and Pidge you take up point pass the moon base."

"What about Ares?" Allura questions as they all begin to ascend pass the last dregs of the Earthen atmosphere.

"......They didn't get their shields up fast enough." Keith says in a somber tone.

_No! This is my fault! I wasn't quick enough._

"Sonda doesn't want us going near them either. We're supposed to stay close to Earth and assess the enemy." Pidge hisses angrily.

"Yeah and I don't know how you can assess it from the moon where we'll be holding point." Keith speaks up and Allura looks to the Black Lion hoping what she's thinking is what he means, "Be quick and don't do anything to risky." 

With Keith's commands Allura charges up Blue's thrusters as Pidge laughs over the comms, "Please have you met us."

"Sadly yes," Keith tells her dryly, "Alright team lets go. We need to buy Romelle and Coran some time."

Pidge and her rocket out towards Mars, but only get halfway pass the moon before encountering the mess of it all. Drones fly wildly and in formation causing Allura to pull some maneuvers she never dreamed of before as she dodges, attacks, and keeps an eye on Pidge. The vibrations of destruction in her wake only faintly shakes Blue's hull, but doesn't leave any scratches or dents for sure and she tears through as many flyers as she can before they reach Keith and Hunk on the moon. The problem with drones though is that they can leave you confident as you take out more and more. Allura just happens to swing around to freeze a drone on her tail and she sees something they missed — and it's heading for Pidge! Allura's throat goes dry as she watches and in the next tick launches Blue forward with her arms stranding and blood rushing in her ears as she closes in on Pidge, only hoping Blue was faster. But it doesn't seem to be enough and just as Green looks in her direction Allura wonders if this is what Lance felt before he saved her. 

 

_It's happening and it's happening too fast!_

Romelle mental cries as she panic to power up the forcefield and braces for impact as the Castle take the full force of an ion blast from the Galra flagship.

According to the frantic calls of Hunk and the terrifyingly calm description from Allura and Pidge the blast came from the area above Mars and without the array up it would hit the continent of Africa dead center. Romelle didn't even think as she closed the hanger bay, told Coran to hold on, and rushed the Castle to its fastest speed to block the blast just in time. Now she was trying to regain altitude so she wouldn't be the thing to crash into the continent as alarms screamed and flashed around her. When she did she was only 11 k'qell above the landmass. 

But her sigh of relief was short lived as Coran's face appears on the main screen, "Romelle! We must get back to our original coordinates. We have to finish deploying the particle barrier."

"We can't," Romelle cries back, "We would be leaving the planet defenseless."

"We're doing so now."

"Guys!" Pidge yells over the speakers, "The canon's recharging."

"Are you sure?" Coran ask.

"Very sure Coran. We're the closest we can get and our scanners show that its only at 7% right now." Allura's voice rings out through the Castle speakers.

_We have time, but not forever. Think Romelle! Think!_

"Oh! Coran? Can I dump the rest of the satellites in an order and continue to act as the shield until its up?" Romelle asks hoping her idea had merit.

Coran's brow furrows before he looks contemplative, "That could work, but we would need to be very precise in our drops so they can be easily moved with the jets."

"Just give me a course and I'll follow it." Romelle tells him seriously.

Coran nods and contacts their home base about what they were going to be doing while also sending her the course. The blue predetermined path lights up on the screen in front of her. Romelle speed back up to the altitude she needs before slowing the thrusters to what she needs to be within range to finish this run in five doboshes and play defender for likely ten or more. Opening the hanger she looks to her left and see how the cannon was at 14%, how she has sixteen satellites left, and how she could see other smaller Galra cruisers getting closer to the planet.

Taking a deep breath she begins, "This is your chance Romelle. Be a hero."

 

Shiro may not get sick during teleporting, but it's definitely not his favorite mode of transportation. But beggars can't be choosers when it gets you to the deck of the ship you need to be on quicker then some of the people running on to the ship.

"Good luck." Lance says like a whisper in his ear because he's there one second and gone the next with only everyone surprised eyes telling him that Lance was here.

"Is there anything he can't do?" Veronica snarks with a grin as she takes her seat.

"I'm sure there's something," He replies similarly.

He turns to Sam and has a question on the tip of his tongue only for the ship to answer it. As the crystal in his hand begins to glow brighter a complex container rises from the ground just behind Sam, who turns to look at it too. Walking around a shocked Sam, Shiro places the crystal in and feels almost like he's experiencing a divine moment for how brightly it glows that the whole bridge is engulfed. When it finally lowers a few seconds later he can see it still thought the floor before the light is spreading across the bridge and lighting up all the screens and consoles.

"It – It works." Sam breathes in awe.

"How are the MFE's and their squads?" Shiro ask wanting to have an update so he could help as best he could.

Knowing that only the MFEs could keep up with the drones Shiro told Sam and Iverson to have them lead a squad of six so that they could clear enough of the area for those jets to come in with bombs.

"Going according to plan with all MFE jets intact, but we've lost four bombers and one pilot." Adam tells him.

"Okay. What are our losses right now?"

"The major cities of London, Johannesburg, and the – the island of Indonesia have been attacked and in some cases decimated." 

_Damn! We need to get out there now._

"Alright, system check?"

"All the systems are in the green and the jets and engines are primed and hot Captain." Sam tells him sternly, but Shiro still spins towards the older man in shock.

_It had to be a slip of the tongue or —_

But as Shiro looks to the proud grin on Sam's face and then to the rest of the small bridge crew they all nod in agreement. Turning back to Sam he nods to him,

"The bridge is yours Shiro." And steps down. 

As he watches Sam walk away the elation of what it meant to be a captain goes rushing through his mind along with the weight of the title, especially given in a time of distress like now. But people were counting on him again and he had the most knowledge of how a cruiser's battle tactics went so it would only make since he would be put in this position and he was going to prove to them they hadn't made the wrong decision to trust him. He would be the best commander – captain he could.

Nodding to everyone he stands up straight and walks towards the Captain's display, "Alright crew the Castle and pilots can't handle all this alone. Plot a course to the closest Galra cruiser and lets kick some ass."

They fly from Arizona to Florida in six minutes and not only take the cruiser out with one shot, that rocked the ship when it happened, they also easily repel an ion blast from another cruiser and take it out to before Miami is attacked. They go on to help Romelle with towing a cruiser she destroyed to none populated area in the Alps and then join the MFEs and their bombers in the India Ocean taking care of the last three cruisers in an all out ship battle.

With them finally crashed in the ocean and Australia and China reporting that they were in-bound to collect the enemy crew Shiro turns his attention to their interstellar battle, especially after hearing something like a sonic bomb, but much worst. Looking over to his right he calls for Curtis' attention.

"Lieutenant Isaac-Mowo, I need comms with Voltron," Only a couple seconds later Keith's pained breaths are coming over the comm, "Keith! What's your status?"

"Sendak brought a ton of backup, more than we thought. Mars is completely overrun and we can't get close. But the moon is secured in it's defesne and artillery. The particle barrier is holding strong even after that hit from the new cannon. It took it like it was nothing."

_That must have been the sound we all heard._

"Is there anything else?"

It's quiet for a bit before Keith takes a deep breath and continues, "We took a hit from the cannon when it tried to hit Earth so some of our system are hit, but  nothing is critical, but, but right now it doesn't look like there's anything else we can do."

"Then fallback," Shiro tells him gently, "I know you all can do more back on Earth. We'll need your help rounding up the Galra."

"Captain, Artemis is requesting you."

"Captain?" Keith questions, confusion clear in his voice.

"Sort of took to it." Shiro tells him.

"Well you always did do well in command. We'll be there soon, our ETA is five minutes." Keith laughs slightly before cutting the call. 

Shiro sighs deeply to himself as he massages the bridge of his nose. He didn't want to ask Keith to come back, he wanted Keith to make that call, but even he could see there wasn't else they could do at this exact moment. He listens to what base commander Lovell has to said before Shiro is worrying about the Artemis base. They needed more information about this new weapon and what else the Galra had so to be ready for their next encounter. They also had the possibility of sneaking Krolia in to work from the inside because they would need every advantage with the Ares base being taken, according to lieutenant Isaac-Mowo, and lieutenant McClain stated that the similar defenses for Artemis were there so they would immediately have to to change some of the defenses for the lunar base. They had lost 100 people, all from different countries, and Shiro resolved not lose any more.

"Captain! Ares is hailing us!" 

Shiro shoves down the feeling of hope because he has a feeling of who is calling them.

"Answer it."

Just as he thought, Sendak in all his viscous and evil glory stares down at him with a gnarly sharp smirk.

"Black Paladin. I see you've taken up another beast." He says coolly.

"What do you want Sendak?" Shiro growls and feels his heckles rise as Sendak looks even more smug.

"Control of the planet, Voltron in my grasp, and mainly your death." He answered causally.

"We will never let that happen." Shiro tells him calmly.

"Yes, like how you did so with your red planet's base. You haven't done such a good job as you think preparing for us and for that your kind will suffer. If they don't already inflect it upon themselves with their ignorance." 

With that he turns around and waves over two sentries that were behind him. What they bring has everyone on the bridge frozen and silent. Brought to his knees was base commander Glenn, who was desperately trying to fight the strong metal grip.

"You will submit or be destroyed." Sendak tells him lowly,

"You want the destruction of all." Glenn  spits at him in his heavy accent.

Sendak barely reacts, "Yes and I will find pleasure in doing so either through weapons or my bare hands." With that he places his robotic hand around Glenn's head.

"Sendak. Don't!"

But it was already too late as they all had to watch the sickening scene of Sendak physically crushing a human skull. He does it slowly prolonging the pain and causing the commander to scream in anguish. Shiro wishes he could have turned away like everyone else, but seeing the light leave the eyes of so many he found he was desensitized to it all and the least he could do was be something of a comforting force by keeping eye contact until the end.

So he knows they will avenge all that are lost. 

Sendak steps back and shake his hand out, but ignores the body of their fallen commander like a piece of trash and Shiro lets his anger fuel his claim.

"You won't win! We will be victorious. We've stopped you before and we will do it again."

Sendak snarls at him as he likely remembers his four defeats at their hands, but just like before it smooths out into a smug grin. 

"We'll see." Sendak smirks dangerously before the transmission is cut.

Shiro grips the panel in front of him as he tries to let cooler heads prevail, but Sendak always had a way of getting under his skin. He was right that they had lost, but Earth was safe today, though not tomorrow. They had today to learn, mourn, and prepare for what was next because they wouldn't just win the battles, they would win the war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just assuming that floating prosthesis are Altea's specialty because Allura made Shiro's arm float & Haggar/Honvera gave Sendak his arm and both of them float sooo yeah assumptions have been made.


	7. Overcoming the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War is a series of battles fought, but they aren't always on the battlefront.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mini war stories! Enjoy!

**03/05/2054 — Unknown: Operation 'Phantom Fox'; Classified**

  
"And you're sure it's secured?"

Pidge doesn't even try to stifle her annoyed groan at Keith's question. Glancing back at him with a look that would at least get Matt to flinch Keith just stares back looking for an answer.

"As _sure_ as I was the five other times you asked me 'oh fearful leader'." Pidge says through a stressed grin.

That gets a reaction as Keith looks almost hurt before he's glaring at her and stomping off and leaving her in blessed unbothered silence. She needs to finish the encryption on these comm units before they leave and his constant questioning wasn't helping.

"Now Pidge," Startled she whips around to see Allura sitting at the other end of the table. She had been working through some reports so quietly Pidge had forgotten the princess was even there. But now Pidge wish she wasn't for how disappointed she looked, "This is a very delicate mission and its obvious why Keith is concern."

"I know! It's just that... I don't know," She sighs, her own attitude defeated by simple logic. Looking to door Keith stormed off through she looks down at her lap in shame, "I just hoped he would trust me based on everything else I've done. I've never let the team down before. I won't let Krolia down."

They were only three months into this standoff and already Sendak proved to be formidable and annoying persistent with an entire fleet at his disposal. Already he had attempted another attack on the planetary particle barrier to test its strength and the Galra also had a sonic weapon of sorts that caused quakes on the moon destabilize the base and causing its barrier to go down as two of the generators were damaged. The battle lasted for about five hours as they and the MFE's defended while the Castle and Atlas protected the Artemis base from most of the attacks. And to make matters worse the one cruiser that the Atlas and Romelle left in the Alps to capture later had already enacted a forcefield around itself and approximately 76 mi2 around it making an unwanted Galra stronghold. The only thing Pidge and her friends had done recently is stop some mining operations by the Galra in the asteroid belt as most of their focus was on rebuilding some of the decimated areas. They were in need of a win.

And that win was going to be through Krolia.

During a routine check of communication from the moon to Earth after the attack in December something else was picked up in the message, but it took weeks before it got to them during a briefing where most of her friends knew what it was after instantly seeing it. Hell, if someone had just shown it to Pidge she could have told them what was going on.

When they had started working with the Blade Pidge made it her mission to understand their codes and frequencies and had Lance add Galran to her language lessons so she could understand the breakdown of their communication. At first it was for Allura who was still distrusting of the Blade and when she had told her what she was doing Allura calmed some and worked diligently with them, but later she was lending a hand in communication as she had come to trust the rebel Galra. The signal was coming from Mars which explained how the transmission was easily mixed in and caused confusion among the communications and analysis teams. It turned out to be a shorthand for confirmation to talk to Krolia and after she spoke to Kolivan they all found out that five other Blades had been planted with the fleet as a way to help them out. Which was good news especially when they found out that the Altean colony had been abandoned. With that they began planning a way for Krolia to infiltrate Sendak's fleet and have a way to communicate as well. It was a quick mission planned as the Alps based Galra had launched two attacks in the last week taking out two major water power plants depriving Vienna and some of its surrounding towns of power. 

In their haste Pidge could see why Keith was anxious. And if not that, then the fact of having to leave a family member - his mother - again in a dangerous place that was so close, but still far away that he couldn't help immediately.

In an hour Allura, Keith, and her were to sneak Krolia on board a mining operation on the far side of the belt opposite of them and leave Krolia with two the five Blades that were apart of her team. Her and her Dad had expanded the range of her cloaking device and could keep the Blue and Black Lion hidden as long they flew within a mile of each other. They would make sure that Krolia was safely with them and then Pidge, Keith, and Allura would show themselves and destroy the mining operation as Krolia and the other Blades left for the main fleet just before the destruction. 

"I should apologize." Pidge says looking back to Allura with a rueful grimace. 

Allura returns it with a soft smile and a nod, "It would be for the best. We can't afford to start breaking now. Besides we are friends and friends are there for each other."

"Yeah."

Looking down at her code she makes a note on another window of where she stopped and gets up to look for Keith. It takes her a few minutes, but when she does she glad she did.  At the end of the hall in front of her Keith and Krolia were standing in an unused room, but neither were talking. Keith was looking toward the wall as he grips his left arm in what looks like a painful hold. Krolia looks down toward him with a sullen expression that Pidge understood more than she liked to admit.

_I'll wait like ten more seconds. If they don't do anything then I'll leave._

But just as Pidge was about to leave Krolia speaks up.

"Keith I...," She stops and looks to ground as he seems to curl into himself more. She reaches out and gently lays a hand over the one squeezing into his bicep, "I'm sorry to have to say goodbye to you for a second time."

Keith doesn't answer right away, but when he does he has a morose grin that was so lackluster she could see it from here.

"It's not goodbye forever," He says quietly before reaching to his back and pulling out his Marmora blade and offers it to Krolia, "Take this. You can return it when we see each other again."

Krolia smiles as she reaches out slowly for the blade and cradles it before stepping forward and pulling Keith into a hug. At that Pidge steps back and walks back to the ready room and finds Allura had left. With no one around Pidge finishes up the code pretty quickly with only twenty minutes to spare. Getting out to the runway to check on Green's systems she finds Keith walking up to Black just ahead of her.

"Hey Keith." She calls out.

Keith stops and turns around and goes from curious to irked quickly.

"Oh. Hey Pidge." He answers in a clipped tone as he turns around with his arms crossed.

_He has the right to be upset at you. Don't get upset back Katie._

"I just wanted to say she'll be fine. She's done this before."

Keith's brow furrows and he says briskly, "I know that."

Pidge's first instinct is lash back out at the angry tone, but this was something she caused so she bites the inside of her cheek and counts to ten before exhales heavily and continuing, "I'm just saying you know she'll be okay. And that if you just want someone to – to sit with, or play video games, or just mope around with that – that I get that. I get what it's like having to leave family in a dangerous place," She says softly as she thinks about Matt.

Keith stares blankly at her and after a few seconds it gets unnerving, but then he's smiling a soft, small, and not at all begrudging smile.

"Thanks Pidge." He says sincerely before turning away and continuing to his Lion.

They leave a little before schedule and make excellent time getting to the mining operation. They land over a back access hatch and sneak in to meet with the two other Blades where Pidge hands over the comm units with a few instructions before turning to leave. But before they do Keith is pulling his mom into another hug.

"Thanks for everything you taught me mom and, and for being here. Stay safe."

"I will. I love you Keith."

"I love you too mom."

They leave soon after and once they get the all clear from Krolia that they had left Pidge drops the cloaking and they attack the base. The plan goes fine and they get back to Earth before any reinforcements can show up. They're also just in time to see the first message from Krolia telling them she'll be going dark for a week just to get assimilate into the fleet before updating. Pidge watches Keith and when she sees the brief grin she's sure he's going to be okay.

Now she had given Keith an invitation to come over, but still wasn't sure if he would take it. He had Shiro, Adam, and Allura after all to talk to, but Keith had started opening up more so she should have been less surprised when he ends up knocking on her family's door the following Tuesday asking if she minded his presence. And as he sat in one of her beanbags eating tiny Oreos out of a bag the size of her head and watching her play Killbot Phantasm 26 Pidge could say she wasn't bothered at all.

* * *

* * *

* * *

**06/14/2054: The second battle of Earth**

 

"The sky looks so weird." Hunk comments.

"Hunk," Lance chuckles, "You say that whenever you look up at the sky."

Hunk just rolls his eyes sarcastically to himself, "I know, I know. It's just so alien now and its cool."

The particle barrier had been around Earth for a while now, almost two years, and the first thing Hunk notice when he got back to Earth after their first battle was that the sky was a darker shade of blue, kind of like the ocean, since the sunlight was coming through a blue shield. It made orangish sunsets a more rustic brown and rainy days were darker - not that Hunk saw a lot of those - but he had seen it from some news reports from around the world including pictures of rainbows that were easier to see with their darker hue. He and Lance were just making a run from where they handing off some supplies to University of Nairobi and suppose to return with a new and untested laser system that the technical researchers had been working on. With nothing pressing as if yet he and Lance decided to fly low across the Atlantic and enjoy the peace.

Life back on Earth had stayed been pretty routine to life in space - in Hunk's opinion - except now instead of traveling to different worlds and meeting new aliens he was traveling his own planet and meeting all different types of people, and though he kind missed space this was much cooler. Plus, he could see his sisters and moms a lot more with Yellow making the trip easier. And the best part of being home was he was able to eat regular food again!

He never knew he would miss pork or lamb like he did. Heck, he even missed chickens a bit.

Okay. No. That was still a lie and one he couldn't pull off.

But either way while being home was great they were still fighting. It had amounted to a weird battle on two fronts with the base in the Alps growing in acres when it could and being responsible for making stealth runs to attack important ports or cities with the Garrison only having a 50%  success rate of knowing and taking the bombers down ahead of time. And while there were attempts to fight off Sendak's main fleet the one time they tried they almost didn't make it back, so they mostly protected the moon base and destroyed the operations they had going on based on Krolia's data. Sometimes Sendak would attacked the forcefield and they would attack back trying to cause more damage to his fleet then him to their lack of one. So while the sky may look cool and weird it was for a sad reason, but at least it was beautiful to see the sky touch the ocean and it almost blend perfectly together. Also Yellow liked it too, she had showed him how it was like her old home's sky once.

That's why when the sky started to get lighter Hunk was blinking and rubbing at his eyes as the sky's deeper color begins to quickly bleed away.

"Uh Lance? Are you seeing this?" Hunk ask as he slows Yellow to a stop.

"Yeah." Lance says faintly.

"I don't think that's a good thing."

And just as he finishes his sentence Keith and Shiro's voices come over their comms in a jumble mess of authoritative noise that had Hunk biting his tongue in distress, but as Lance begins to swiftly climb into the atmosphere he feels that is the best option and follows, hoping he secure the firing mechanism well enough.

"Sooo I got none of that except that it's an emergency, can you repeat that?" Hunk asks with a shaky chuckle trying to keep himself calm.

"They hit us with an EMP and the particle barrier is down. I need you two to get back here now." Keith tells him in a lower, but not less calm voice.

"We can't do that," Lance cuts in and Hunk watches as he flies Red almost vertical now and Hunk struggles to follow, "We're already climbing into the upper atmosphere to stop the first wave. Meet us at the coordinates 7° 29' 24", -19° 15' 1.9". "

They reach the edge of the atmosphere in seconds and already Yellow is feeling unease and tense.

"It's okay girl," Hunk pats the flightsticks in a soothing manner, "What are we looking at?"

What she shows him on the scanner and screens is definitely not okay.

"Oh. Oh that's not good." Hunk whispers to himself as he sees ships starting to enter Earth's orbit.

"Hunk where is the nearest satellite?"

Shaking himself from his fear induce mini-coma he looks to Lance's face on the screen in front of him, "What?"

"Nearest satellite?" He asks again with more urgency.

"The nearest one will be," And a quick scan tells him, "circling by in two minutes."

"Alright lead the way."

Hunk glances back wearily to the incoming ships, "Shouldn't we stay and wait."

"I already told command there's a change in plan," Lance replies seriously, "Come on, we need to go before more ships hyperjump here."

Hunk pushes Yellow the fastest she can go and he knows she giving it her all as they make it to the satellite that would look like a frisbee in her mouth. Scanning the machinery, he can see that it wasn't damaged in anyway, but more like remotely turned off. Pulling up the database with the list of the 266 satellites' status it was all coming back the same, off.

_If I could find a way to turn them on with like a jump or something maybe we could restart some of —_

"What?!" Hunk jumps in his seat as alarms start going off for no reason, "What's wrong?!"

Looking around his Lion he couldn't see anything wrong until Yellow was screaming Lance's full name in his mind and when he looks toward him he didn't blame her. Lance was out of Red and slowly making his way to land on the satellite moving under them.

"Lance! Why are you out of your Lion?! Where are you going?!"

"Don't tell anyone what I'm doing unless they ask." Is all Lance says as he lands on top of the satellite and starts crawling to the center.

"What are you doing?"

"Something stupid. Cover us."

Hunk watches anxiously as Lance opens the hatch on the top of the satellite and against all common sense or sanity starts rooting around in it for a bit before he hears a small noise of excitement from Lance. Then he and the satellite starts to glow a light blue glow that was similar to Castle's barrier.

Lance was jumpstarting the satellite!

But before he could jump up and down in happiness Hunk remembers that there are 265 left, but Lance has that covered apparently as suddenly a blast of light and what looks like bolts of lightning fire out from the five panels to where the counterparts would be and in a flash the paneling was making the lighting expand out in a flat wave and Hunk could see the barrier being reformed before his eyes.

"You're doing it Lance! You're almost there." Hunk cheers him on as he flies him below the growing protective shield.

Just as the shield solidifies there is a flash of lightning all around them and a thunderous clap and Lance is flying back from the satellite, but Red is close by and moves up to catch him against his nose.

"That – That wasn't so hard." Lance coughs in a ragged voice as he pushes off Red and clumsily lands on the satellite again to close the hatch.

"And no one found out." Hunk beams as they had gotten away with it.

"Find out what?" Pidge asks as the rest of the other Lions fly up to them.

_Almost got away with it._

"Lance what are you doing out of Red!" Allura shouts in a pitch that Huck didn't know she could reach.

"Uhh helping?" Lance shrugs and nervously rubs the back of his helmet.

"We don't have time for this. Eighteen ships got in." Keith tells them briskly.

"Then lets form Voltron guys!" And Hunk can't help the giddy grin that breaks out as he whispers to himself, "I've always wanted to say that."

Keith sighs and Hunk could almost see him rolling his eyes, "You heard what the Yellow Paladin said. Form Voltron!"

 

Six doboshes.

Six doboshes after the shield went down was all it took for Romelle to be right back in the situation she was in during the first battle for this blue planet. She had set off across the Pacific while the Atlas had gone across the continent to take out the two over the American continent before going across the Atlantic. She had made it pass the long island before she reached the largest continent and found out that they had down the ship sent to attack and were now investigating the wreckage. Continuing to the distress call from a country called Russia she came to an expansive city with at least three craters in it and had the sound of evacuation sirens blaring and laser fire echoing in the Castle's bridge. She could easily see that while one ship had been downed on the outskirts of the city and fighting had already broke out near the ship two others were approaching, one over the city and the other approaching.

"Coran we need to take out the ion cannon then we need to move this fight away from the city and the soldiers." 

"You're clear to fire when ready."

With the newer spires built for the Castle the blast slices through the Galra's shield and ion cannon in a tick and in a massive explosion.

"Yes!" Romelle cheers before punching the air in excitement like Pidge showed her, "Alright Coran we need to concentrate all of the particle barrier to the helm and cut power from the Teluduv feedback system and feed it into the thrusters."

Coran looks back in confusion before he's grinning in understanding.

"I'm glad to see you were listen." 

"You are a great teacher after all."

"Yes I know," He smirks, "Now let's show them not to mess with an Altean Battlecastle."

Bracing, they shoot forward and ram into the Galra cruiser with bruising speed and push it out of city limits and even send it crashing into the oncoming cruiser trying to maneuvering out of the way catching it in its side. The force breaks the ramming cruiser in half and the resulting explosion forces the Castle sideways, almost knocking her and Coran to the ground. 

"Quick! Coran we need altitude."

"To fire from above?" He turns looking back for confirmation.

"Yes." She says with a triumphant grin.

After turning the ships into smoldering heaps of purple metal Coran calls the base that called for help and they tell them they'll be sending bombers soon and conveys to handle the first cruiser and anything else. With their clearance to leave they quickly turn around and head to the open deserts of the eastern edge of Asia and come across the MFE's fighting off drones high above a natural resources plant. Diving in altitude Romelle has Coran place the Castle under the fighting so she can gauge the battle and can easily pick off any drones that get too close.

"Hey the cavalry is here!" Nadia yells over her comms as she flies pass the front of the Castle in a tight spin the sends the drone trying to catch her wide and allows for a perfect shot from Ryan. 

The pilots take care of most of the drones by themselves and need no help from her and in doing so she's able to catch a glimpse of how experienced flyers could move gracefully through the air. It was amazing to watch. But in doing so she sees something she couldn't stop and could only yell,

"James look out!"

But it was already too late as the drone hits him in the wing taking it clean off. Romelle hears everyone calling for him to eject, but something had malfunction and he couldn't. Not even thinking, just like last time, Romelle raises the ship up into the sky and turns it to its side and can only tell James to brace as she turns on the tracker beam and fires the jets to spin the Castle so the movement will slow him some bit instead of a complete stop. After two rotations Romelle levels the Castleship again and pulls the broken MFE into the bay.

"James are you okay?!" Nadia screams.

It's a tense few ticks before they all hear a groan of pain and a sigh of relief sweeps over the comms at James being alive. With that the MFE's, led by Nadia with a rallying cry, viciously finish off the last of the drones.

"Romelle, my dear, you must start warning me about those tight turns or I may need to get magnets in my shoes." Coran groans as he leans back and his back pops suspiciously in a way she knows she going to have to check on later.

"Sorry." She apologizes as she resumes her place above the plant protecting it.

Just as everything dies down the bridge doors open and Coran returns supporting James as they walk to one of the Paladin's chair. And with no danger Romelle quickly leaves her station to help James sit down. And in that second she goes from amateur pilot to experienced nurse as she starts to look over what she could with the flightsuit still on. She knew his ribs were probably fractured ,if not broken, but he didn't seem to have a concussion.

"Hey, ow, you did great out there." James says quietly as she gently prods at his chest.

Looking up from her actions she smiles just glad she had been here when it was needed, "You think so?" 

"Yeah you're – well," And James looks down at her with smile only to look away with a slightly pink face.

_Maybe he did hit his head?_

But then he tries to move his left arm only to grunt and wince in pain. Romelle is up from her kneel and is gently reaching up and slowly moving the arm down toward his chest.

"Hold it there so not to aggravated it. We don't know exactly what's bruised or broken." She tells him softly.

"Like that," He says equally quiet and when she looks down he's smiling again as he says, "You're a hero. My hero."

Romelle isn't sure why, but she feels like her ears are burning all of a sudden, "I - I'd be happy to do it again."

And she could kick herself for saying something like that, "Not that I would want to. To have you in trouble! Or anything! Just that ... you know..." She scrambles to backtrack and makes it worse.

But surprisingly James just chuckles quietly, "I do."

Romelle raises her bowed head to ask if he's sure, but he's already reaching out with his right hand. Before she can warn him against it he slides a strand of loose hair behind her left ear with a soft expression and suddenly it feels like her ears and her face are much warmer and her heart is being squeezes in a pleasant kind of way.

"Ahem," Turning quickly and standing straighter than she had ever in her life Romelle looks to Coran who has an indescribably amused that she can't figure out, but felt like she needed to defend herself against it.

"As I was saying the attack has been quelled and we are to return to home base." He say, bemusement clearly in his voice.

"Oh. Okay. Uh the MFE's can come on board if they liked to rest." Romelle says looking to James and he nods his head slightly with that same grin.

"I think they liked that."

 

As Shiro stares up at the night sky and notice how the fainter stars were missing from the midnight display as usual with the barrier. A barrier that failed because of an EMP disrupter that they were told was at least a few weeks from completion. In reality it was, but Sendak fired it anyway to see if it would work, which it sadly did. Luckily the Blade undercover there was able to sabotage it before Sendak asked for it to be fired again when the barrier came back up. And according to her short report the technicians blamed it on Sendak firing it too early and plans to make a new one were sidelined for now until the Galra could gather all the materials again.

But before it did eighteen ships made it through, attacking bases, cities, and power plants around the world. Thankfully none of the nuclear plants were damaged and the solar and wind farm of the desert had only minor damaged with everyone's quick response. But still five countries and one of their states were attacked and now there was a death toll of 1,345 people last time he checked. They had even lost the newest batch of MFE to use when one of the cruiser attacked the companies making them in Texas and two of the ships made it within the perimeter of the Galra base in the Alps and had double their area of operation. Sighing deeply Shiro looks to the Garrison base he drove from in a fit of anger.

Well less anger and more fear. Fear for Lance.

It was miracle when they looked out from the bridge and saw the sky become darker again as the shield came back on, but he became less so when he found out that Lance had put not only him, but Hunk in a seriously dangerous and vulnerable position. And if Lance's stunt hadn't worked...... he didn't want to think about it. But Shiro didn't know the limits of Lance's power like the Altean did and Shiro knows that he's just scared for Lance – he had felt this way before, just not so strongly – and not wanting to express the unneeded fear in possible anger he stepped away after the briefing, not even looking towards him as he stormed pass. He knew that finding love in war was filled with constant risk and sacrifice, as so many WW3 movies and his own track record showed. He knew it was difficult and he didn't have to like it, but couldn't let it break them.

"This is probably how Adam felt sometimes." He whispers to himself.

"Every time." Comes a bemused voice.

Turning around Shiro is surprise to see Adam walk up the large boulders he stood on top. But looking pass him, he could see the same model of jeep rover next to the one he commandeered from the base. He must have been so deep in thought that he didn't hear it driving over the rocky terrain.

"Every time you and Keith would do something stupid I worried. And when I waited for you to come back from a long mission I worried. It was hard to love someone so adventurous." Adam says as he reaches the top and walks over to stand next to him.

"Sorry." Shiro says, wincing as it doesn't sound like he's sorry at all.

"Don't be," Adam sighs, "In the end I do really treasure those moments, the first one. They were quite fun when you two or just you dragged me into ... inadvisable stunts."

Shiro smirks as he looks over and playfully nudges him, "You know you're an adrenaline junkie under all the cool collectiveness."

"Wouldn't be fighter pilot if I wasn't." Adam coolly agrees.

They lapse into silence after that just staring at the sky and the dulled Milky Way and moon only barely lighting up the sky.

"He's looking all around the base for you." Adam breaks the silence after a few minutes.

"I figured. But..."

"You needed some time after that." And it's said with some level of knowing that Shiro can appreciates that someone else gets it, even if it's from the experience of dating him.

"Yeah." Shiro sighs heavily.

It settles back into quiet as an understanding passes between them that could only be experienced from being with someone for so long. But eventually Adam gives him a comforting pat and turns away, but stops after getting down only one boulder.

"Should I tell him to wait at the east gate?"

Shiro looks out towards the sky again before back towards the base that was only a blip of light in the distance.

"I'll tell him myself."

And when he pulls into the east garage Lance is standing there sleepy, defiant, and worried. He tells him he not sorry for what he did, but he is sorry for making him worry. Shiro knows these moments are on borrowed time and he doesn't want to miss any of it because of silly misunderstandings. He pulls Lance into a hug and tells him he never wanted an apology for his bravery, he only wanted him to be okay and he's sorry Lance thought he needed to explain himself.

The only emotions on his heart now are love and concern as Lance returns the hug. Shiro lets his emotions guide him and Lance to his apartment suite where they rid themselves of their suits, cocoon themselves under the blankets, and just hold each other as they fall asleep content in this moment and desperately praying for more.

* * *

* * *

* * *

**05/30/2055 – 05/31/2055: Operation 'Gone Black'; Unsanctioned**

 

When Adam swung the branch he had been using as a crutch at whoever was following him he wasn't expecting it to snap against a glowing blue shield. Or for Keith to be behind that glowing blue shield. 

"Keith! What are you doing here?" Adam shouts before he smacks a hand over his mouth.

And Keith has the audacity to just blink at him confused and say, "Saving you."

Adam stares back patiently waiting for more and when Keith offers no other explanation he wonders if shaking him would account to abuse.

"No. How did you even get out here without being spotted? Who let you come here?" He hisses as he stands back up again using the rocks to his side to help him stand.

"Not completely." And Keith looks behind him.

Adam leans against the side of the rock face and squints at the person moving towards them and sees that Cadet Griffin was bringing up the rear with a rifle blaster. Turning a full force glare on him Keith at least has the decency to look ashamed as he says wryly, "I had a royal decree of sorts."

The annoyed groan Adam makes as he tiredly rubs at his eyes does nothing to express the true depth of his feelings about this situation.

"I can _not_ explain how much this is a bad idea."

"We didn't bring anything that was important. But we did have to bail out of the Galra escape pod because it's engine died from Keith pushing it too hard to get here in a couple of hours. So if they saw us they think were dead." Griffin tells him.

"We're going to help you hike down and when we're outside the influences of the base we can make contact with the base in Garmisch and get us all back home." Keith lays out the plan like it was as simple as that.

Adam had volunteer for a mission to photograph and scan the dome to find out why they had been so quiet for most of the year. With four specialized cameras and the younger Holt designing a cloaking device for the retrofitted STA-17 to be used in his fly by it should have been a easy mission. And yesterday had started off that way as he made five flybys before he was apparently detected. Knowing that the photographs and scans were instantly transferred back to the Garrison he bailed from the slower ship before the drones following him could shoot at him. But his landing wasn't as graceful as he would've like as the mountainous winds blew him into a near by cliff side making him lose his glasses and twist his left ankle when he slid down the pass he made it to. He knew in his mind that the Garrison wouldn't risk sending someone out to get him and they all likely get captured. And they definitely wouldn't send Keith and Griffin with how important they were, but with Keith's allusion to royalty he knew Lance, if not Allura, helped Keith get out and Griffin followed.

"What you're doing is violating so many rules. Do you know what will happen?" Adam tries to reason with him, but Keith just rolls his eyes.

"They already kicked me out, what else can they do?" He shrugs. 

Throwing his hand down to where his cadet was standing lower then them as if to point out the consequences with just the action, "And what about Griffin?"

"He chose to come." Keith answer blandly.

"To bring you back." Griffin looks over his shoulder quickly.

"Which you will when we leave." Keith calls back not even turning around.

"No!"

They both turn to him with looks of shock and Adam feels some of his growing headache abate at their looks. But not enough as he is still gritting his teeth at knowing so many reckless people. Opening his eyes his headache from far too many sources gets steadily more painful, but he pushes through it as he stares at Keith.

"You need to leave now. I knew the risk and there are so many more people who need you." He stresses as he tries to let Keith know he couldn't let him get hurt, but in that moment he seems to have forgotten that love goes both ways.

"Well I need you!" Keith screams back and it echoes through the small ravine they were in and in Adam's chest.

Quiet settles over the area and Adam is at a loss of what to do or say, especially with how Keith looks so hurt now - head bowed, shoulders shaking, and fists clenched tight.

"If you think I'm going to risk my life for Shiro and not you, you have another thing coming." He whispers angrily before he looks to him and Adam can see his eyes were glassy with rage and lost.

"...Keith... I didn't —"

"You were one of the only ones that care about me after dad died," He cuts him off with a harsh whisper, "You were the only one that cared after we thought Shiro died too. I'm not going to lose you." 

Adam knew this, but Keith had bonded more with Shirogane that Adam had felt like the awkward step-parent trying to become friends with their partner's kid. He knew Keith liked him, but he didn't know Keith cared for him as much as Adam did. And he had just stomped all over it.

"Keith."

And he doesn't say anymore as he leans against the cliff face and holds his arms out which Keith rushes into the embrace with no hesitation. Not really able to support a twenty-four year old of pure muscles they slide down the rock wall as Adam keeps hugging him. It had been awhile since their last hug and Adam almost forgot how when Keith gave hugs it was with all his might, like he was afraid to lose the person he was hugging and with his history Adam knew why he did it now. Hugging back a little tighter he was slightly disappointed when a someone clears their throat. Looking up, Griffin is standing a couple feet from them with his head turn away.

"Yes Cadet Griffin?"

The cadet jumps a bit at his name and holds out a new and stronger looking branch, "I think we've stayed here too long. We were planning on finding you and getting down the mountain today and to the base tomorrow."

"Yes it would be best if we started moving wouldn't." Adam says in an exasperated tone and chuckles, while Keith sighs angrily before getting up and helping him stand. Getting situated with the new crutch they get going with Griffin in front and Keith walking next to him.

"Keith," Adam whispers to get his attention. He looks over questioningly and Adam musters up the best smile he could against all the pain, "I'm sorry. And thank you."

"It's fine. You're family." Keith tells his quietly as he smiles back.

They do surprisingly make good time and Adam gets to spend his second night in the Alps at a much lower and much more comfortable altitude with the base a fuzzy purple spot in his vision behind the peaks they climbed down from. They get up as the first rays of lights spilling into the valley floor and Adam is sure they will get back without the Galra none the wiser, but the relief was short lived as on the horizon Adam can blurry make out the purple dome disappearing and a large trident like structure appearing before they all watch it shoot off across the mountains tops into the distance.

 

"What are we going to do? We definitely need Voltron and Kogane isn't here. Despite my orders to not let him go." Admiral Sonda says tersely as she looks down the table.

The machine that the Galra in the Lichtenstein area of the Alps had created from their own ships were what Pidge and Sam posited as a tri-zaiforge cannon. The damage that it could unleash would be devastating if they didn't stop it before it got here in the next fifteen minutes. The other nations that engaged it were quickly shot down and the Garrison called for no one else to attack it and to focus on what was left of the dome. Shiro glance across the table to his team, but none of them look guilty about Keith's disappearance as they kept looking forward.

"The particle barrier for the Garrison will work." Sam speaks up only for the admiral to easily cut him off and ask for how long.

"As long as it needs to." Sam says lowly, daring her to challenge him.

"Shiro could you re-connect with the Black Lion?" Allura asks and suddenly all eyes were on him.

"I don't know if I could." He answers honestly.

He knew he has a stronger bond after everything, but Black was quiet most days now and didn't even give a hint to what they were now. Shiro didn't want to give everyone hope where there might not be any.

Sonda's eyes narrow as she glares down the table, "What are the other options then?"

"The Castle is still undergoing repairs after the direct hit it took during the confrontation on Io and the Atlas' third and sixth engine are almost repaired." Coran reports with his face twisting up with uncertainty as he says, "There is the possibility we could take it on with the Atlas."

"Could we try the ritual?" 

It takes Shiro a second to remember what Lance is talking about, but when he does he's speechless, and not for the right reason.

"Absolutely not." Allura yells as she turns in her chair.

"But there's no other way," Lance turns to her, "I mean we have the notes —"

"No," Shiro says flatly as he gives Lance a look that says and begs 'don't even think about it, please', "It's something that's never been tried. On top of that it's only a theory and not one we are risking your life for."

Lance stares back at him blankly before sighing, "You're right. So were just going to use the Atlas and the remaining Lions and MFE's?"

"It seems like it," But Shiro looks down to the admiral who sits straight up from where she was resting her chin against her fold hands.

"It's the best plan we have. Everyone to their stations."

Everyone gets up swiftly and start running to their places. Shiro only makes it halfway down the hall to the elevator for the IGF hanger before he freezes. It was likely that Black didn't talk to him because he didn't talk to them. Their whole relationship was based around him asking them questions and them answering them. And he knew they were there in his head with every other part of him, he just had to pull on it again. And he was not disappointed when he did.

'What are you waiting for Paladin.' Black's overlapping voice rumbles in his head.

"Well an invitation actually." Shiro replies partially joking and partially asking.

'Always so cheeky.' They scoff and the bond expands back to what he was used to, endless and cool.

Smirking to himself as he doesn't deny it, he runs to the elevator and catches McClain getting on with some other crew, "McClain! Tell Sam he's in charge of the Atlas." He shouts to her, not even running all the way up to her.

"Wait? What?! Where are you going?" She yells back as she stops the doors from closing.

Flashing an excited grin at her, "To my Lion."

 

James had seen videos from before the Voltron team came to Earth in briefings and later saw the videos from the people who were lucky enough to see Voltron by being too close to the action for their own good, but it really didn't do it justice or compare to seeing the machine in action. It moved with a grace that James could have only hoped for as it twisted out of the way of multiple laser blasts and the way that it took hits and gave back more than it's fair share was awe-inspiring. That's why he wasn't at all ashamed to be pressing his face against the glass of the Altean pod they were in as he watched as the space robot looked as powerful as described as it shone triumphantly in the Sun as it led the drones following it into the left side of the ship's cannon causing it to explode in spectacular fashion. He's actually glad that Romelle had been able to make a small wormhole to send Coran through to get them because one, he was out of those chilly mountains and two, he could watch this amazing display.

"How - How are they doing that?" James looks to a bored Keith who was talking with Mr. Smythe, "You're here."

But then Keith smirks as he looks over, "Before me Shiro was the Black Lion's Paladin," And then the most expression he had seen on Keith's face since yesterday is shown in the way of a proud smile, "And he still is."

James looks back and feels like his mind has imploded at his hero being one of the Paladins. He thought he was just command support.

"He could not get any cooler." He breathes to himself.

"No he couldn't, but he'll keep surprising you." Keith laughs quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shiro & Black Ride Again!  
> I've already proven I don't care about what the canon is so they still have their bond, how could they not after everything.


	8. The Battle of Valles Marineris, 2056

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... and now it ends.

Waking up with a splitting headache and feeling like he had trained too hard never had a good outcome for Keith since he got involved in this war. Rolling onto his back he looks up and finds a dull grey ceiling and lighting that barely lights up the small room.

_How did I get here?_

Asking himself that question brings back some hazy memories of the admiral with Sendak and speaking about Zaiforge cannons. But that couldn't be right. The admiral had heard how horrible Sendak could be, she wouldn't risk everything after what they had fought for. Would she?

It was going to be their final assault and everything was planned to the very last detail. The Blade behind enemy lines had informed them of the cannons and there readiness to launch as well as the sites they were built at on the surface of Mars having an extra safety measure in case they ever got to close and that they were working on cannons to attack with. With Sendak's fleet down to about fifty ships, as the other ships being made were destroy last year in the Battle of Io, the Garrison pushed to make a final attack today to neutralize the Galra fleet. They had Romelle wormhole them into the upper atmosphere over the ThaumasiaPlateau where Ares base was located in the dawn hours for a surprise attack, but the supposedly downed particle barrier came online trapping them inside. Unable to move the fighting into space and away from the already launched Zaiforge cannons they were no match for the concentrated fire. 

Straining and grunting Keith stands to his legs while they protest as he walks to the door and reaches for his bayard, only for his storage unit to whine in protest. Grinding his teeth he leans against the door and pounds on it.

"Hello? Lance? Hunk? Pidge? Allura?" 

Each name is said with more and more worry with no answer, but before he could think the worse he gets a response.

"I'm here," Hunk calls out from across him, "How long have we been out?"

"Looks like an hour. What happen?" Pidge answers Hunk, her voice coming from his right.

"We're on Sendak's cruiser. Admiral Sonda," And he doesn't want to admit it, but he knows it true,"...Sonda... She sold us out." He tells them quietly.

"How could she?!" Pidge hisses.

"He said he'd leave the solar system if he had the Lions." Comes a confused and disillusioned voice.

Keith turns to his left so fast his vision swims a bit before focusing again, listening to see if his ears deceived him.

"Admiral?" He calls out.

"He lied to me," She continues, "This is all my fault. I wanted to end all the fighting..... We weren't succeeding, not really. We were just hiding. I wanted to protect my people – our people, our planet, but now I've doomed them... I've doomed them all. I'm so sorry." She says quietly, words becoming muffled at the end and causing Keith to strain his hearing to hear her over the faint noise of fighting outside.

Even if Keith could understand her motivation it still didn't stop the rage that rose in him at her ignoring everything they had been trying to achieve. But now cooler heads needed to prevail, patience was needed.

Inhaling, Keith leans close to the other wall, "Admiral? Do you know what Sendak's plan is?" He ask gently.

It takes a second, but she reply and it was as worse as he thought. Sendak was going to move all six cannons into position to fire on Earth when the planet rotates towards the Sun in about a half in hour. While one cannon would likely glance off the barrier, six was likely to break right through their defenses.

"Please, you must know, I wanted to save Earth."

"You shouldn't have sold us out then." Pidge growls.

Before Keith can say anything Hunk asks a very important question, "Hey, has anyone heard from Lance or Allura?"

"No," Pidge answers sounding surprised, "And their signals aren't here either."

Keith's stomach flips and falls with dread now knowing his whole team isn't close where he can keep them safe.

"He said they were too dangerous to be left in the brig. But I don't know where he took them." Sonda tells them.

"I can try to contact the Blade and find out if any of them are here and know where they are?" Pidge says and Keith can just here her over the ship shaking from a hit or nearby explosion. Another way to remind them of how out of depth they were.

"We need to get out there," Keith says as another blast rocks the ship.

"Roltiv's here and she says she found them. They're in stasis sleep in the medbay, but she doesn't know how long it will be before she can get to us." Pidge informs him.

"That's not a good enough answer!' Keith grunts before punching the wall.

Thrown off balance by his own action Keith stumbles to his knees and it encapsulates exactly how he feels most of the time he takes flight with Black. Lost and unworthy. Being a leader wasn't in him and now their planet was going to be destroyed because of it. He couldn't save them and he couldn't even think of what Shiro would do or say in this moment.

_Maybe this is the end?_

"Hey guys? I have a thought," Hunk's voice echos slightly in the silent corridor and with no other ideas Keith was happy to listen to anyone else, "Remember how the Lions have come to the rescue when we needed them? Well why can't we call them now. We're in despair. They might be able to pick up on it and break us out."

"Calling the Lions to us and having them break us out are two different things." Pidge points out, sounding upset with herself for it.

"I'm not saying it will be easy or possible," Hunk counters with a hard tone, "but we have to try. Lance always said it was in us to do what he's done... Think of our families. Think of Earth."

"Hunk's right," Keith finds himself saying and with more confidence then he thought he had, "Shiro has always told us we were capable of more than we realized. And Lance has always believed in us and our bonds so it's worth a shot," Sitting up and kneeling in a more comfortable position Keith calls out calmly, "Close your eyes. Connect with your Lions."

As Keith does the same he searches for the leftover strands of the bond he had with Red. Finding it he follows it lightly, like he's toeing a line, as he looks for the edge where it blends into the Black Lion. The bond he finds is almost like the top of a waterfall, feeling the vibrations of immeasurable power and the terrifying endlessness of the drop, but Keith doesn't hesitate, he knows that this is where his bond with Black is and all he needs to do is trust them and fall. Its the only thing he can do if he wants to save his friends and his world. The Black Lion didn't let Shiro down and since they choose him they hadn't let him down either. Mentally pushing himself forward he falls faster and it feels like he's rushing to the ground only for the next second for him to be caught in zero gravity and a coolness that didn't freezes him reaches out and whispers in his ears to open his eyes. When he does he can see the Yellow Lion next to him and the Red, Blue, and Green Lions across from him with Yellow and Green lit up in operation.

_"They did it!"_

_'You did as well.'_

Keith feels himself, somehow, jolt at the soft layered voice and can only question,  _"The Black Lion?"_

 _'Indeed. Now I believe you wanted to join the fight.'_ They say in an almost teasing way and Keith understands know why Shiro and Lance describe them as sassy.

Using their blast to break out they immediately fly out towards the center of the battle and find the Castle under heavy fire. Quickly destroying the two ships attacking them they contact Romelle and Coran and tell them their situation.

"That's astounding and thank the Ancients you're safe, but where is the Red and Blue Lions? Where are Allura and Lance?" Coran asks, worry creeping into his voice with each word.

"Roltiv says they're almost to the brig." Pidge tells him, "We'll be out in no time, but tell the Atlas not to shoot at the flagship yet," Pidge adds on, her voice going a little high with panic.

As they soar down to the surface Keith has Hunk and Pidge focus on the land battlements so there's another way to maneuver for their ships, but just faintly he hears noises outside. It sounds like the laser fire from outside, but much closer. Keith tries to turn to it, alert to this closer problem, but Black gently redirects his attention and calms him against the outside noise by essentially muffling it.

_'There's nothing to fear. You're safe.'_

Trusting them and he continues to destroy the overtaken base's defenses before having his attention pulled by Black to return to the ship. They all fall back to Sendak's ship and land in the bay they broke out of only for Black to recede, but not disappear from his mind. Coming back to himself is slow and Keith knows that he won't have all his senses to fight, but he gears up to fight anyway as he turns to the noise of grinding metal. The noise turns out to be Lance physically prying the door back and wedging himself between it and the wall as he reached out a hand for him to take.

"See you took my advice." Lance pulls him up, smiling proudly at him.

"Sometimes it's good advice." Keith grins back as he ducks under Lance's arm and walks into the hallway. 

He watches as Allura does the same as Lance, prying back the door so Hunk could squeeze past her. Looking around he sees four destroyed sentries and one Galra solider laying out on the floor and multiple laser burns. Turning to his left he see a Galra woman with somewhat large pointed ears that were darker purple like her markings that stood in contrast to her grey hair that was in a long braid. She turns to Keith while supporting Admiral Sonda, who has a blaster wound to her arm and leg, and her glowing yellow eyes seem to brighten as she stands straighter.

"Command leader Krolia has reported that she has removed the last twenty Human captives from the base and is waiting at the rendezvous point for pick up." 

Keith nods to her and was going to turn away, but the admiral calls him back.

"Kogane," She says softly, "Do what I couldn't."

He can hear the sincerity and pleading in her voice, he could even see it in her eyes. She may not have done the right thing, but she still wanted what they did – for Sendak to be gone and Earth to be safe.

"We will," Keith tells her and watches as she sighs in relief, sagging more into the Blade's hold, "Roltiv. Get her to the surface and wait for us to contact you."

Roltiv nods and slowly starts walking with the admiral towards the escapes pods. Keith turns back to his team and only gets to see that they're all okay before Allura and Pidge are reaching out for his hands as everyone else had joined hands. And any of the happiness he had felt from his friends being safe was crushed at what he knew was coming next. Grumbling about the unnaturalness of it Keith roughly grabs the girls' hands and watches as his vision blinked out of existence except for white to then come back with spots dancing in his eyes. But they were in the same holding area the Lions were in with the wind from the gash earlier whistling loudly in their ears.

"I hate that _so_ much." Keith mutters as he walks over to the Black Lion.

"But it gets us to places faster."

Lance calls out over the comms, sounding too happy at the mild discomfort he caused and getting the others to briefly chuckle at it. Rolling his eyes as the chair slides forward Keith lets his friends get in a laugh because until this is over they're going to need to focus and fight their hardest.

"Alright team, they can't win alone. It's time to end this fight."

 

As Shiro flies through the debris of Galran drones and cruisers in the upper atmosphere of Mars he watches for a brief moment in awe at the repurposed satellites Lance is using to deflect the Zaiforge cannons away from forming an amplify blast of particle radiation like Sam warned against.  

They had come into this battle thinking they would have the upperhand only to be trapped within the Martian atmosphere by their own satellites they thought were destroyed. They were further boxed into the metaphorical corner when the launched Zaiforge cannons fired on Voltron, blinding them all in the resulting blast. When the glare went down they could only just make out that Sendak's ship was dragging the Lions into it and there was no way to get to them with them being pinned down by air and ground forces. They needed to get Voltron back without destroying and possibly killing the Paladins inside. Heading off the attacks as best they could and actually taking down some of the fleet as Sam unknowingly disappears to engineering because thirty minutes later he's contacting Shiro with good and bad news. The good news was he had created a neuro-interface virus to shut down the functions of the crytsal so the ship would crash and the cannons would be disabled, but the bad news was that the cannons that had been let out of the particle barrier were focused on Earth and would be in position in a hour to hit not only the Moon, but the Earth as well. Romelle tried to get the Castle close enough to destroy a few satellites so they could get out, but it only caused her to be pinned down by two cruisers and the MFE's were too busy with the drones and the Atlas with other cruisers to help. Then a blur of color streak through and towards the Castle destroying the ships. 

It was the Lions!

But only Black, Green, and Yellow. But before he could even fathom what that meant Coran is contacting them and telling them what Kieth and Pidge relayed to them. Shiro wants to asks more questions, but with a particularly hard hit from another cruiser his attention is directed elsewhere until he hears from McClain that Voltron has reformed and has destroyed enough satellites to cause the whole barrier todissipate. Quickly calling Voltron Shiro outlines his plan and tells them to hold off the beam until he can shut it down from inside the ship. As he runs to the airlock to get a suit for his halo jump Issac-Mowo gives him updates on how the Lions had collected some of the undamaged shields and are somehow using it to create a smaller shield around them that is deflected the singular beams. As he hears this Shiro's stomach drops in fear at Lance pulling that stunt again and even if Issac-Mowo says it's holding Shiro knows it won't be for long as he watches as the cannon bare down continuously on them. More determined than ever Shiro pushes the jet pack to get him to the ships hull climbing in through the hole made earlier and begins sprinting as soon as his feet hit the floor. Everyone is putting their lives on the line and Shiro needs to back them up. 

He needs to be their hero.

Getting through the ship's maze like interior is like a second nature to Shiro now and he finds the power room easily. After placing the circular device Shiro steps back expecting some feedback, but realized too late he had miscalculated how much as lightning arched out across the room and one of the bolts catches him in the side throwing him against the wall.

When he comes to Sam and Veronica are yelling in his ears for him to response, their urgency shaking off the last jolts of electricity from his system.

"Shirogane here." He grunts as he raises his hand up to touch the side of his helmet while using his left to brace himself against the wall to support him as he stands up.

"Oh thank God," Sam sighs as Shiro finally gets his legs under him and makes for the top of the ship, "Shiro, the cannons are down and Voltron is making quick work of them. The Castle is picking up the Blade and the survivors as we speak."

"Captain, the ship is now it's free falling to the surface." McClain informs him and Shiro figured with the shuddering of the ship.

Breaking out through the secret entrance on the top of the ion cannon that they had found during one of their stealth mission Shiro runs halfway down it before looking back and forth, gagging the side and the alt-meter display on his right arm, which is falling rapidly.

"If I wait until fourteen thousand feet should I be fine to jump?" He asks McClain as he keeps and eye on the gauge.

"The suit should be equipped to handle the residual heat and clear the wreckage. We'll could send a small shuttle to — "

"YOU!"

Turning back to the hatch he ran from Shiro looks up to see Sendak's impressive stature ominously lit by the light of re-entry. Raising his hand to his helmet he contacts McClain.

"McClain. Delay the shuttle for now. I have some business to finish."

Sendak waste no time as he jumps off the top of the ion cannon and firing a powerful shot from his claw that Shiro dodges by throwing himself to the side. Focusing on his opponent Shiro is only faintly shocked by the large arm coming his way and can only raise his arm to block it as the dual of Altean versus Galran technology becomes more apparent with each blow and shower of sparks. Watching every advance and heart beating fiercely in his chest Shiro blocks and trades quick and vicious blows with the Galra who doesn't seem to take any damage with all the effort Shiro is putting in – even taking a direct punch to his helmet didn't rattle him.

Sendak smirks as he rears back and punches Shiro sending him flying down the cannon, only catching himself after one bounce and pushing himself to run back at Sendak with his own arm extending out to punch him, sparking again as the opposite technologies clash. As sparks fill his vision and the robotic claw takes up his attention he misses Sendak moving his center of gravity to kick him right in the chest. The force and the crash into the hull hurts just as much as the last time and Shiro can feel something's definitely bruised as he breaths and blinks away the pain, only looking up as his proximity alarm starts to go off in his helmet. Pushing his exhausted muscles to move Shiro throws himself to his right and out of the way of the claw, watching as the arm goes back to its master. Standing and getting ready for the next blow Sendak roars louder then the wind whistling slightly around them as size of the ship acts as it own barrier.

"Every _ounce_ of my being will be directed towards the destruction of you and your pathetic planet!" He roars over the wind and rushes at him again with the same trick.

Jumping over the arm in an incomplete flying kick Shiro tries to take him off guard without his arm, but he finds himself being bested again and sliding down the length of the cannon and digging his fingers into the metal to stop him from sliding as the ship begins to take a serious plunge forward. But just as soon as it started something changes and the ship starts to level out and change course towards Valles Marineris. Knowing this was his best chance to leap he begins running to the side of the cannon as the ship does begin to tilt sideways and touches down with a monstrous roar. Letting the first shockwave of the hit push him upward Shiro takes the initiative and fires his jet pack at the last second and begins trying to out fly the crash behind him. Readouts in his helmet are flashing bright red as the ship closes in and he can hear the scraping and twisting of metal against the Martian rocks as it comes closer and closer, but with a final boost the warnings die down. Turning back Shiro can see he's in the clear only for his eyes to widen in disbelieve and his body shake with despair.

_NO!_

Sendak is a blur as he crashes into him, grabbing him, and forcing them to crash into the rocky bottom of the canyon. Rolling out of the way Shiro curses at his hopeful thoughts that Sendak would died in the aborted crash come crashing down too.

_If I survived of course he did too._

Shiro stands to his feet and with the way they are protesting and his own fatigue settling over his body Shiro knows this is the final moment. Here was a win or be killed moment and he had too much to live for to die.

"Victory ... or ... death." Sendak huffs in exhaustion as well as he staggers to stand.

They stand at a stalemate waiting for the other to attack and all Shiro can think is that he needs to be on the defensive because the moment Sendak charges he won't have the strength to stop him _._

But before he could look for anything in the crash to use against Sendak he is closing in and bring his clawed monstrosity down with Shiro's only instinct is to duck and raise his arm. He was expecting pain and Sendak's holy-than-though speech, but instead it sound like a bat hitting plexiglas. Opening his eyes Shiro stares in shock as a large florescent blue concave shield protects him from Sendak. Although not from seeing his ugly face as it twist up in rage at being deny his win.

With the slight advantage and not having anytime to really put much thought into his idea Shiro jumps back and barrel rolls to the side and out of the way of Sendak's claw, grabbing a fist full of lose rock and sand, and popping up he throws it at his head stalling him enough as he steps back that Shiro charges at his opening. Only thinking he needs something sharp to shatter his helmet Shiro let's the arm take over in forming whatever it needs as he ducks under Sendak's favored detach arm move to deliver a uppercut punch to his face.

The harden glass of the space helmet breaks in almost slow motion as Shiro feels like he's watches every bit of glass fall onto the Galra's face as well as blows out. Falling to the ground and rolling to his left and out of the way he sees as Sendak falls to his knees as his normal arm reaches for his throat before he slouches over and begins convulsing. Walking over Shiro watches in detached joy as blood begins to foam around Sendak's mouth and nose and his eye becomes increasing orange until his angered and mangle face is glaring up at him, defiant in his final moments as the life gurgles out of him just under the whistling winds of the vast chasm.

They had finally won. 

Without Sendak they would easily not only capture the remaining Galra, but they could rejoin the fight with the Coalition and use their larger ships to move all the prisoners. But all that could wait for a bit as there was dead to mourn and celebrations to be made. And more importantly Paladins to tell he was okay  and the threat was finally over.

"Shiro to Voltron. Come in Voltron."

In doing so he notices what his hand had conjured up for him. The prosthetic had created a projection of what looked like knuckle dusters made out of Balmera crystals that shone brightly in the victory. 

"Nothing is ever going to stop surprising me is it?" He say to no one but the universe as he thinks about his normal hand and the crystal formation slowly deconstructs itself.

At the sound of groaning Shiro whips around to see if there was any other hidden surprises from Sendak's ship, but thankfully it was the Lions flying over and landing just ahead of it. Shiro wants to run over, but the adrenaline of the fight and the two near death experience leave him staggering over with a tired smile as the other Paladins run to him with Keith and Lance slamming into him and knocking him over with the force of their hugs. And even if the air is knocked out of his lungs Shiro can't stop the few tired chuckles that leave his lips as he hugs back and Allura, Pidge and Hunk join the hug too all laughing and excitedly talking over each other. 

Then something causes everyone to quiet down and for a moment Shiro is afraid it's not over, but then as he begins to see his shadow he realizes its the sun. Turning back he looks up at the peachish sky of Mars and sees the early morning light twinkle almost triumphantly as a new day start. A day where they don't have to worry about the next attack. A day where they can begin to grow and rebuild out of curiosity instead of fear.

Their people – their home was finally safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if Voltron can throw in wild stuff with no explanation I can add cool stuff with a little explanation and it be fine.  
> Also Shiro deserves this kill. Yes Keith looks cool doing it, but Shiro deserved it.


	9. Fractured Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything was going smoothly. Repairs to the moon and Mars bases were going well and with the Coalition's help the devastated areas of Earth were coming back quicker than they thought. 
> 
> But they forgot that quiet didn't always mean peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know it’s been a hot minute, but I got caught up in my other stories because I felt I had neglecting them, but then I ended up neglecting this one. But now I’m back and ready for some more Shance!  
> Please enjoy this super late chapter  
> (^◡^)ノ!!!

_By the Ancients. Was I ever so weak?_

She knows the answer is no. Never weak, only deceived for a time. The goddess glances around as her subjects scurry back and forth as they finish the first acolyte prototype. 

She had been through thousands of years of servitude with a veil over her mind, but now with everything revealed and her mind equaled in strength of her powers she could right all the wrongs brought on by this pitiful spiteful 'empire' that was conquering the universe to show their power over all life when the Galra were little more than rabid creatures sucking the life out planets as if it was sucking the juice out of a fruit.

"Mhmm." She groans as she feels the stinging pain of her communication link alerting her that someone was trying to contact her. 

Stepping away from her watchful post Honerva walks down the wonderfully high lit walls of her heritage and stepping out into the dazzling light of Oriande. Breathing in the fresh air instead of recycled she reaches out to feel the swell of quintessence around her. 

The swell of true power.

Using it, she whisk herself away to what is left of the Galra command cruiser she brought to this pure land and makes her way to her mediation room. It was likely Sendak was contacting her, even though she had not received a report from him after almost three years. 

Pulling on the memory of how she used to look in her sickly state, she grabs the hood folded at the edges of the steps and answers the call. Not surprised at all to see Sendak's scowling face she lets him tells her of how he will be making the final attack as one of the Humans gave up vital information on Voltron's plan that will allow them to conquer the planet Earth and deliver the Lions to her within 36 vargas. Honerva doesn't believe it for a tick, but regardless says she will have a Teludav portal ready then for his return. And even if he is successful she plans to destroy the planet anyway so that the Galra there and all the Humans were no more.

Turning away and shrugging off the robe Honerva becomes herself as she walks to the door only for it to open before her. Revealing an excited Merla, who instantly bows her head in reverence as she should she reports actual news.

"My Goddess, the final prototype is finished and ready for inspection."  

"Excellent work." She praises her most loyal servant before leaving the mediation room already knowing she will  never step foot back in this accursed place.

Every step forward will be planned by her and only her for the betterment of the universe and for her family.

Several vargas later she is proven correct when the connection with Sendak comes alight. She witnesses flashes of her failed clone punching through Sendak's helmet and can feel the life leave him rapidly, like any air in a vacuum. Pleased with the fact part of her problem is deceased Honerva looks to her followers and decides now is the perfect time for her to start avenging her son and her race. She has Luca fly to the planet instead of warping her there, in the time it would take to get there it would all give Earth a false sense of security.

And when she touches down they'll be too disorganized to fight, and if not, the Acolyte can handle it.

 

"I think that if we decide to run power through the conductor twice we can get enough power to ping them off each other, so if the chain is broken we'll know somethings in the solar system. I mean we would have to tune it to the right frequency for metal and crystal signatures, but what do you think?” Pidge looks over her shoulder expectingly at Lance.

It had been at least three months since the final battle and end of the war for Earth. Everything was trying to stabilize back to normality, or as much so as a planet could after fighting off alien invaders.

But the war at large wasn’t done yet.

Allura and Shiro had still been in contact with the Coalition and while they were doing fine the Galra Empire had fractured into multiple sects like Sendak or into marauders – or like Hunk said space pirates – which does sound really cool. Though it seemed to be mostly the fleets. Almost all the occupied planets from the beginning of the empire that had merged their cultures and had grown with the Galra came to the rocky conclusion to form their own alliance and start talks with the Coalition as they didn’t want their worlds to be invaded. It was smart, though in Pidge’s opinion a bit cowardly. They deserved to feel the same fear and anger of someone attacking their planet, but she guesses with the looming threat of being forced into war by your own race against your race  _or_ creating peace with the rebelling planets of your empire being the only two options, the latter was their best bet.

With only needing to quell the raising infighting and permanently settling on a galactic version of what sounded like the United Planet Initiative – that was put in place after WW3 – most of everyone’s energies were focused on making sure that Earth’s defenses were impeccable after Voltron left with the Castle and the Atlas. 

Now she and Lance were trying to figure out the best way to power an early distress beacon that would have several sensors along the orbit of Pluto, though more flat then it’s elliptical sideways orbit. It would be another two weeks before Romelle and Coran came back with Shay and her balmera and then they would have access to crystals to easily start combining the power sources.

“I think it could work if you made sure to compensate for the ion converters' influx and the possible feedback that could short it out.” Lance says finally, as he reaches over and scroll through her hologram blueprints.

“Of course I thought of that.” She answers with a cheeky smile that has Lance rolling his eyes.

”How could I forget? Of course the great Pidget knows all.” He says in a dramatically deep voice and even throwing a little bow in.

“What can I say, I’m awesome.” Pidge smirks as she plays along.

They get to work design a few beacon prototypes before Pidge’s protesting stomach makes itself loud enough that Lance has her save her work and drags her out of their planning room. As they walked out onto the barren Martian landscape Pidge wishes they had fixed this base first. The residence and mess hall for the Ares base hadn’t been reconnected with the rest of the administrative or lab sections yet so everyone the was stationed here now had to have spacesuits on almost 24/7.

But the twelve minute trek today wasn’t all bad.

"Oh! A shooting star! Make a wish!" Pidge finds herself yelling out loud as she happens to glance up just as it started streaking pass.

"But its a meteor... no a comet." Lance says slowly as he watches the space debris slowly race through the sky before looking over at her and Pidge laughs as his eyes narrow in confusion. 

"No, we call them and some meteors shooting stars because when they were first documented they looked like falling stars to those people." Pidge explains and watches as Lance’s face smooths out in understanding.

"Ohh. Like how Allura and I skips stones and getting four skips is good luck?” He asks.

Pidge is surprised how quickly he came up with a parallel and a good one too

“Pretty much.” 

“Hmm. And the wish?"

"Not sure," Pidge shrugs as she looks back up at the harden ice streaking across the atmosphere, "It's just a thing we do like what you do.”

"That's cute though. Well I wish that we get this alert system up faster than we planned." Lance smiles as he looks back up too

Pidge chuckles lightly as she continues to watch, "I hear that."

 

Laying his head back on his jacket and crossing his arms over his chest Keith lets the afternoon sun warm his skin. It almost unpleasant, but after not being able to do this since he left Earth it made him feel almost normal again. He wasn't some military head or the leader of Voltron, he was just a Texan resting in the warm spring sun. And as a plus, this was the best way for him to think.

He's not sure when he starts drifting off, but its not long as a shadow begins to block his sun and the coolness is too close, for it to be a cloud, which means its a person.

"Hey, are you doing okay?"

Sighing, Keith slowly opens his eyes to see Shiro looking down at him in concern, "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"Because you wouldn't tell us otherwise. It’s like a detective novel figuring you out sometimes,” Shiro smirks lightly, “And I know you're usually only this heavy in thought when somethings wrong.”

"Yeah, but I assumed you'd all be in contact," Keith huffs as he sits up, "More annoying then a wet hen." He grumbles to himself.

"Who all else asked?" Shiro chuckles as he takes a seat next to him on the outcrop.

"Adam, Mom, Hunk, Allura, Lance, Pidge. Coran just stared me down before saying I was in excellent health, and now you." He lists off not caring how petulant he sounds.

"They're just rightfully worried,” Shiro says unhelpfully, while patting him on the shoulder, “I mean you try to not tell anyone when you're hurt; like the zipline, the two-to-one fight with the guardians, after meeting the Blade, the meteor shower. Oh! Remember the hi—"

"Oh my God!" Keith cries out and tries not to laugh as he pushes Shiro over playfully, "Let it go. I said I was sorry."

"Didn't mean I was happy with it." Shiro smiles back.

"You had fun too. The only angry one was Adam.” Keith shakes his head fondly, letting the stillness of the desert creep in and settle between them.

They sit there quietly, peacefully, the only noise between them is the wind and using this calm moment Keith studies his brother, all but in name, and sees for once, in a long time, that he’s at peace.

_But it still doesn’t hurt to ask._

"So how are you?" He asks softly, trying not to disturb the calm.

"I'm ... good. Really," Shiro starts, relaxing more as he slouches forward to rest his elbows on his knees, "I started going to the base therapist Sam talked me into it, Dr. Charles. He's going to her too so she has an idea already about what's going on and it... It's getting easier to get things done... To live. I'm sleeping okay. I'm not having as many episodes. It's – It's good." He smiles to himself.

"And Lance?"

And it isn't a surprise that his smile gets bigger and a bit more dopey at the mention of the Red Paladin's name.

"He's...," And sighing so hopelessly has Keith rolling his eyes at the hilarious spectacle. It honestly still surprises him that Shiro even told Lance his feelings instead of continuing to pine from afar.

“We're doing great too." Shiro finally says softly and Keith could tell from the sappy look. He eventually gets his face under control and turns to ask, “Curious?”

"Kind of," Keith shrugs. He can see that they're fine, but hearing it makes him feel better about Shiro's wellbeing, "You're growing your hair out." He changes the topics as he can see that Shiro had pulled it all back into a bun today.

He watches as Shiro sits up straight and  starts running his left hand nervously down to the low small bun that was probably only a bit longer than when he put his own hair up.

"Oh yeah... I well... it's not too hectic right now ...and I..." 

"It's because of Lance isn't." Keith smirks teasingly as he watches Shiro flounder.

The gentle expression that comes over his face says it all, "Half and half. I used to wear it long when I thought I had nothing to lose. Now I see it as me actually having a chance to relax and well... a lot to gain."

"Hmm,"  _So I'm right, but that can't be it,_ "It's also because his fingers feel amazing in your hair."

The laughter that erupts from Shiro is so sudden and infectious that has Keith chuckling too.

"I hadn't though about that." He laughs, "Just how? He's only playing or braiding your hair, though those head rubs feel great." 

"It made me past out." Keith says out loud, remembering the infamous sleepover with him and Lance. 

"Yes," Shiro gives him a tight smile, but his eyes are bright with teasing, "I remember."

Grimaces at himself for bring it up Keith pushes past it, "What I want to say is that I'm happy for you Shiro. I really am," Before placing a hand on his shoulder and telling him very seriously, "But if he, at any point, tries to lord this over me I'm going to disown myself."

He didn't know if Lance knows he‘s been legally adopted by Shiro, but if he does he knows he'll tease him about being his ‘parent’ constantly.

"What about my parents?" Shiro coughs trying and failing to conceal how funny this is to him, "They'll be upset if they don't have a 'grandkid' anymore."

"I'll ask them for legal guardianship."

Raising a eyebrow Shiro doesn't look convinced, "At twenty-four."

"Whatever it takes." He says solemnly.

Shiro has another laugh at his expense, but Keith's fine with it. It had been so long since he had smiled so easily and there wasn't a trace of fear or suspicions at all. The quietness of the desert soon surrounds them again and Keith lays back down to rest on his folded jacket and enjoys the quiet.

"So you never answer my first question." Shiro says only a few moments later.

_That didn't last long._

Keith sighs wearily, but too comfortable to move he stays laying down as he answers the question.

"I guess... I guess I'm anxious about well...going back into the fight and leaving Earth. I just – we've been out there before with no clue of what we were doing and now we do, but we still don't know everything we should. I guess I'm still worried something could go wrong. That I ...could make a bad call." Keith finally giving a voice to some of his fears about this war.

"I feel the same way too," Rolling to look up at Shiro, he sees him nodding understandingly, "It took me awhile to see that it was okay to be worried about things. Ignoring it doesn't make you a good leader or a stable person. It's hard not to get bogged down by it all, but there are decisions only I can make and... it’s tough. But I know I will always have a team, friends, to support me and back me up. And then some of the stress goes away." He finishes lightly as he turns towards him with that same understanding expression.

_That’s true for me too._

"Yeah, I get what you —

**BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE-**

"Shirogane here. Go ahead.” Shiro answers his communicator with the professionalism of a captain.

What they hear has them both on edge, something was entered the atmosphere  since the shield wasn’t up because of repairs and the predicted path was towards the center of Australia. 

"Can you tell what it is?" Shiro ask already get up with Keith close behind him.

"No. But the ATCA says that its definitely something metallic and putting out an emission similar to the crystals." 

That's all the information they need before they're hoping on their hoverbikes and flying back to base.

Keith and Allura are the closest and get to the site first, mere minutes after whatever landed there. Dust still heavily surrounds the object and the faint dawn light didn't help with viewing it either. But it doesn't stay that way for long as a stylized – almost demonic – battle guardian shoots through the veil of smoke and starts firing a barrage of shots that force him and Allura into extremely evasive maneuvers.

Whatever it is it moves too quickly, almost like Lotor’s ship, dodging blade attack and power blasts. Even with Black's special move, it still moves fast enough that its only grazes it. The battle – as one-sided as it is – looks lost as the machine makes up the distance between their prone Lions raising it’s double-bladed sword above its head for the final strike —

**CLANG!**

Opening his eyes, Keith watches as the robot goes bouncing along the desert landscape. Looking up, Keith feels a wave of relief wash over him as the Yellow Lion flies over them having headbutted the robot out of the way.

"Hunk!" Allura cries happily over the comms, "You got here just in the tick of time!"

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't get here sooner. What is that thing?" Hunk asks as they fly up higher and out of it's immediate range, though that seems to be any distance.

"We don't know, but its definitely a hostile." Keith says getting ready to fire another blast at it to hold it off until Lance and Pidge got back to Earth. 

“Then I guess we're allowed to do this then!”

Lance’s excited voice comes over the comms and Keith sees a blaze of fire push the robot into the rocky ground only to be follow by a green pulse that grows a nasty set of vines and thickets around the down robot. Swooping down and over to them the Red and Green Lions make their appearance at the best time.

“Nice one guys!” Hunk calls out.

“Yeah, good work you two,” Keith agrees,  “It’s distracted so now is the perfect time to form Voltron.” 

They form Voltron without the enemy robot attacking them and even get the first good hit on it before they engage in a epic double sword battle. With a quick turn of it’s swords the robot disarms them and stabs them with its own blades.

The pain is sudden and fierce.

It can only be described as if his insides are being remove out of his throat. It burns and, and it feels like a pain he's never wanted to experience again. 

_The battle against Zarkon!_

No sooner had he thought that the pain stops as it began. He can see a cannon on the Green Lion before it drops to Voltron side, exhausted. Something that Keith can feel especially well, like he ran a marathon unprepared. Every joint and muscle is pulled taunt and shaking with panic.

“Is – Is everyone okay?” He coughs roughly.

“Those blades.... They sapped our energy.” Hunk answers slowly, like it pained him to talk.

“It's – It's just like the Komar.” Lance whispers as he coughs as well.

“The power this creature is generating is unheard of. My surge indicators are spiking every time it's about to fire,” Pidge tells them before he could even ask what it could do, “That sickle absorbed our quintessence. It's using our own energy to power its attack.”

“Just like the Komar." Allura agrees with an anger huff.

"Then we'll have to avoid direct contact," It’s not Keith’s best plan, but its the only one they have right now, "Everyone, up!"

They lure the robot up into the sky so not to get boxed in again and are able to move in directions they couldn’t before.

But so can the robot.

It gets the upperhand again and slams them into the ground, draining their energy once again.

_Can’t move... can’t help.... No!_

The ominous humming of the machine as it drains them of their power echoes in Keith’s ears like static while the glaring purple against the dawn sky makes the robot look more horrific than before. 

**FZZWOOM!**

The sound ricochets even louder in his ears than the robot and signaling the sound of help as a golden light directly hits and blows the mechanical beast from them.

“The Atlas!” Pidge cries out, but Keith already had a feeling Shiro had come to their rescue.

“Glad you're here Atlas," But any celebration is cut short as the machine begins to get up, shaking off the battle cruiser attack like it was nothing, "Paladins! We got to get up!"

It’s a struggle, but they get up and have two swords in hands once again. Keith lets himself be proud for a second on how strong his friends are before focusing back on the robot, "On my mark we go for a faint attack to the right."

With a round of affirmatives they wait until the robot flies back in range and fly to me it head on.

They aren't out of the battle yet. They saved Earth once and they'll do it again!

 

The battle was going in a bad way. The robeast had Voltron down and was sucking the engery out of it at an alarming rate as the power energy on his read-out went down to single digits only for the creature to step back and focus its' attack on them.

The blasted rocks them again violently and they all brace for another attack, but the robeast turns away and flies only a couple hundred away before combining it's blades and slamming it into the earth. At first it does nothing than, it begins draw power to itself, glowing a sinister violet. 

_It's drawing in Earth's quintessence!_

Shiro had only seen three planets in his time in space of the aftermath of the Garla taking pure quintessence from a whole planet. He knew if they didn't do something immediately Earth would be doomed! And only after they just saved it!

And ... and... and Shiro didn't know what to do. He couldn't think. This was like nothing they had ever faced and he didn't know what to do from this side of the battle.

Looking to his crew, he can't even hear them as all their questions and the alerts blare in his ears and their worried faces begin to blend together in the flashing warning lights as even the sides of his vision start to as well. Gripping his command deck Shiro tries to press down against the terror, which was building like a violent cough stuck in the back of his throat, and press back against the pounding headac—

_No! It's – It's something else._

His eyes fall on his Altean arm and where his hand is digging into the metal only for his vision to suddenly become filled with iridescent blue.

Voltron power blue.

Its becomes deceptive quiet in the heat of battle, but Shiro can’t believe his eyes as he focus on the command center and sees no one but the streams of powers crisscrossing the deck as small orbs of quintessence float up gracefully into the open space, almost clouding his vision. Then noise of engines woking at different speeds and the familiar sound of a crystal humming with power fills his ears, and yet somehow Shiro can clearly hear in a melodious voice,

'You know what to do.'

Then like it was all a fever dream Shiro's thrown back into the chaos he never really left, but he knows what he just experienced was real and he does know what to do.

“Set coordinates for upper atmosphere.” 

Lieutenant Commander Willemsen looksconfused for only a tick before he’s turning around and inputting the coordinations.

“But Voltron.” Lieutenant McClain cries out, pain stricken as they begin to rise. 

And he didn’t want to leave them either, but they had too and she would understand why soon enough. There was just no way he could explain what was about to happen.

“Commander Holt, I need all the power we've got." He calls down to engineering.

“Copy that.”

Focusing on the warmth in his right arm, he lays it on his command deck and feels the power of his ship’s crystal like its exactly under his fingers. Remembering his bonding sessions with Black he gently pulls at the pressure behind his eyes and feels not only a connection being built, but being awaken into something unheard of.

"Atlas crew! Hold tight!" Is all the warning he can given them before the transformation happen.

The blue lights show up again more tangled as more and more appear lay over the other before it blends in with the command controls and flashes of blue light like they were descending in an elevator faster than they should begin taking up the windows. Shiro can sense and feel the Atlas shift underneath his feet and all around him and it is exhilarating!

“What – what happen?!” McClain asks as new graphics for what he knows is the Atlas’s new battle mode appears on screens, “Are we a giant robot?!”

“The energy is – it's off the charts!” Holt tells him, throughly astounded.

“That's all I need to know.” Shiro grins confidently.

_We're back in the fight!_

“Atlas! Descend!”

And not even finishing the sentence his ship begins freefalling to the surface as he plans to punch the metal monstrosity on re-entry. She moves perfectly for him, just the sight suggestion and she moves, like an extension of himself. The force of it starts to burn the fist from, but not only does it stop the robeast, it draws it away as he has Iverson lay down some cover fire, with the now, wrist mounted cannon. 

“Isaac-Mowo, get me in contact with the Paladins.” His hands fly over the screens and in mere seconds he’s nodding back to him, “Paladins, are you there? What's your status?” Shiro asks, begging that they’re all okay.

"We're here Shiro." Lance coughs, voice drained. 

Relief is crushing in alleviating the fear and Shiro momentarily crumples under it briefly, holding the deck for support.

“Our status isn't looking too good,” Keith answers, almost as laboriously as Lance, "How did you —?”

“I'll tell you later," Because there will be a later, "Right now focus on getting back up. We’ll need you, but for now we've got you covered." He tells them as he sets his sights on the robeast, determined to put an end to it and having the firepower to back it up.

 

“We have to do something. It's gonna destroy the Atlas.” Lance cries out as they watch helplessly as the Atlas is drained of power too.

It opens it’s chest as it rises from its latest victim to create another new beam attack and Lance punches his dash in anger. Another hit from that and they’ll be finished.

“That's it,” Keith heaves tiredly over the comms, “It’s open chest. It's the only place on that thing that isn't armored. We have to strike there right before it fires.”

“That's a split-second window. How do we do that?” Allura whines angrily.

And as if answering his sister’s questions the right side of Red’s pod starts to glow. With a renew strength Lance turns to see his bayard port glowing red.

“My bayard.” He whispers as he reaches back out to hold on to it.

“Mine too,” Keith speaks and Lance somehow knows they’re about to pull off something special, “Team, we've got one chance. Give it everything you've got! Lance!”

Turning the bayard with more force than is probably needed produces a newer, sharper, and larger blade. As rumbling comes from behind them it’s the only warning Lance gets before he sees something reading ‘rocket booster engaged’ and they are rocketing up to meet the robot head on, soaring over and around it faster than they’ve ever gone before.

_Spilt-second chance._

But as they close in it seems like Lance has all the time in the universe and none at all.

_You’ve got this._

And with a calming breath Lance pulls his arm back and then slides it through the air and sinking the sword into the chest of the machine, digging in for extra measure. 

The automatic surge discharge throws them back so fiercely that Lance can only vaguely feel the splitting affect of Voltron breaking off into the Lions. 

The first thing he recognizes is that his left arm doesn’t feel right followed by the pain in his chest. The third thing he notices dulls all that pain is that he hears his friends, tired and possibly broken, but not beaten.

“Did we do it? Did we beat that thing?” He asks only able to see a leg from where he and Red crashed.

“I think so,” Keith answers, though he doesn’t sound completely sure himself, “Atlas, what's your status? Atlas, are you receiving me?” With a sigh Keith groans in pain, “They're offline,” 

_But they’re alive. He’s alive._

Is all Lance can think relieved as he sinks back into his chair and closes his eyes. He needs sleep for like a week after this. But blinking lights in front of his eyes put a stop to that. Blinking at the flashing lights Lance feels a wave of nausea pass over him, but he pushes it down to ask,

“What is that?” Hoping Red would answer and stop flashing the light.

“It’a the surge indicators,” Pidge answers him sounding much more alert that he thought anyone should be after the beating they took, “It’s coming from that thing.”

“No. I thought it was down!”

“It is!” Pidge yells back.

“Oh no.” And the terrifying tone that Hunk has doesn’t have Lance feeling any better about this.

“What now?”

“It's powering up. It must have some kind of self-destruct mechanism.” He answers.

“According to my readings, the blast radius alone will envelope half of the Earth.” Pidge tells them, desperation in every word.

_No! No! No! NO!_

“Then we need to get it out of here.” Keith says pushing the Black Lion to stand and everyone following suit. It’s extra hard ignoring the pain in his arm, but the fear of losing on this scale has Lance find the strength to endure.

As they push pass the painted sky and start to enter into unwavering blackness of space Lance realizes with shocking clarity they won’t be coming back, not all of them.

“It's been an honor to fly with you all,” Keith says bravely, and Lance can truly say it has anon he would do it again if he had the chance, “Now, everyone, give it everything you've got!”

With the final boost of energy they could all muster they make it out of orbit and the robeast begins to float off, but its was too much for them and Lance can’t do more the fall back in his chair, drained, but happy that at least they were able to save one more planet. He watches in sadness and fear as the bomb in the robot goes of in spectacular fashion and makes its way towards them.

"Allura?" He calls out to his sister one last time, but can’t get the words to unstick as the shockwaves get closer

"I know Lance." She says softly and it’s like one of her warm hug had enveloped him.

"Okay." He says softly and stares defiantly into the blast scared, but determined to see his end head on. And just as the light become blinding before his eyes he whispers to himself an apologize for a broken promise, “I'm so sorry Shiro." 

* * *

...... _Ugh..... Who turned the Sol on full?_

Lance groans again as he fights with himself to open his eyes. The small glint of light is forcing his exhausted body to turn away from it with bone tiredness keeping him in place.

Trying again to open his eyes he finds that a current has been pulled around and he can only barely see the sunlight slanting through the windows.

That should have been the first indicator that something was off, but moving back into his comfortable position was so relaxing that Lance just settled back into the mattress... that seem to be adjusted upwards? And on top of that he's sure he can feel someone staring at him. Squinting again Lance can see two blurry heads until he blinks and can see that it was two smiling kids, Sylvio and Nadia.

"Hey."

"You're alive!” They both yell raising their hands in excitement.

_My head and left side might protest that._

"It seems like that." He coughs and Sylvio runs away while Nadia gets him the cup of water from the side table for him to drink from. 

A quick glance around the room and Lance finds Sylvio poking Veronica who’s sitting in chair a little ways a way smiling gratefully at him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living,” She says much softer than her niece and nephew, "Everyone made it. Don’t worry.  You’ve all been in and out of it for the past three weeks. Thank goodness Romelle's a nurse and we got a hold of her or..." 

Veronica trails off at that and he knows what she means by what she can’t say. So giving her his best Prince Charming smile he tells her,

”I’m fine Ver. Everyone’s okay and I’m okay. That’s what matters.”

Tears start to glisten in her eyes and Lance wants to tell her not to cry because he’ll cry and then everyone will too.

"Hey, don’t do that. Sylvio. Nadia. Help me out.”

“Don’t cry Tía Veronica. Papa said tears are for only skinned knees.” Nadia says patting her arm as Sylvio nods along.

It gets Veronica to laugh, even though tears do start to stream down her face, but he counts it as a win. Within minutes Coran is popping his head in and basically teleporting from one side of the room to his bedside crying about reckless actions, heroic deeds, and how he had personally done enough for his lifetime. While Lance agree, he still knows there’s so much left to do, but Coran was crying so he decided not to say anything on the matter and just hug him as tight as he could. 

Sooner than he would have liked Coran is called away as he is one of the few people up and healthy enough to help with the crystal integration and takes his leave with a promise to visit during dinner. The next hours are filled with Romelle checking in on him and bringing a message from Allura about how she hopes he’s doing better, which he can say yes he is, since he woke up he does feel much better. The rest of his day he draws with Sylvio and Nadia and talks with Veronica about what has happened since the attack. Veronica’s in the middle of telling him how the Balmerans delegates seemed very impressed with the Grand Canyon when Shiro slides through the door and out of breathe with a look of awe as he stares at him.

Everyone freezes and Lance chances a look at Veronica, who gives him a cheeky grin.

“I made a call.”

She mouths to him before clapping her hands together to get her niece and nephew’s attention.

“Alright you crazy bugs I have to get back to work,” And before they could complain too much Veronica saves the day, “But because I’m the best auntie in the world I’m going to get you snacks before I go. How’s that?”

”YEAH!” Sylvio and Nadia cheer at the prospect of treats and run out the door before running back in to say goodbye to him. After the kids leave again Veronica follows at a slower pace and stops near Shiro to whisper something that Lance can clearly hear is ‘don’t break him’.

They both flush at the comment as Veronica simply hums brightly to herself as she exits the room. Not sure what to do after that Lance tries to fill the silence.

"Hi Shiro... um your ship was pretty amazing. I would have never expec— "

As if speaking brakes the hold that had Shiro frozen in place his face goes from shock to determine as he walks over to his bed with purpose and leans down to plant the most amazing, affectionate, fantastic kiss on him that steals Lance's breathe away. And injured like this Lance needs every bit of it, but this floating high he’s on definitely makes up for the lack of oxygen.

When Shiro eventually does move back, he’s still cupping his face loving and smoothing his thumbs over his sïqę, which feels wonderful and has him sighing in absolute delight.

With what he knows has to be a blissful expression Lance tries to smile up at Shiro, "Hi."

"Hi." Shiro answers back, his voice cracking just a bit.

"Hey," Reaching up slowly, Lance takes his left hand in his right and rubs his thumb over the back of it, "Hey, I'm okay."

"Yes. You are." His voice still overwhelmed with emotions as he glazes down at him like he still can’t believe he's here.

"I'm here Takashi." Lance tells him again and gently pulls on his arm until he’s sitting on the side of the bed.

"You are. You really are here." Shiro repeats, softer, more calm this time as his prosthetic rubs over his cheek again and Lance can’t help but to smile at his love. 

Leaning up as much as his body would allow, Lance reaches out and boops Shiro on the nose and smiles as he goes cross eyed from watching him and says gently,

"So what are you waiting for Captain. Kiss your Paladin."

Shiro’s eyes widen in surprise again before softening as he smiles at him with so much joy. Reaching up with his other hand to cup his face again Shiro leans in to do just that.

 

_Failure was not an option. You have greatly disappointed me Luca._

Honerva thinks as the last strands of consciousness is closed off as the explosion from Voltron’s sword knocks her out. She watches through her unconscious eyes as the Lions remove the Acolyte from the planet as it explodes and the pod does it's job of protecting her as her dark quintessence continues to pull and call out to its master.

She'll deal with that follower later and hopefully she will stay loyal and not a liability. To waste such a loyalist could be helpful in the long run to strike fear into wavering minds, but a spy among the ranks would be much better. If not, Honerva has no time to deal with those not willing to give their all.

"Are you alright goddess?" 

Blinking and taking herself away from that unrefined young system Honerva focuses back on Merla and Taku. They had brought her a report that she was finding quite interesting.

"Yes. Now what have you been hearing about these creatures?"

"Only that there seems to be one and is only attacking Galra and Galran tech,” Taku response as he hand her a pad with the transmissions, “We only picked up one report about one solider that got away and said it bypassed all the prisoners and only attacked the guards."

"Hmm... This is exactly what we need. We will be mobile in two movements time. Tell everyone to double their work. This creature could be the first weapon we use against those traitorous Galra."

"Of course my goddess." They bow in unison before taking their leave, leaving her in on the deck to witness the sunset and the metaphorical sunset on all the Galra.

_They'll pay. They will all pay._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long hair Shiro is back! Almost, but still! Yes, I needed that back. Needed it. 
> 
> Second thing, I feel like the robeast attack and Atlas reveal would have been better if they gave the team time to breathe instead of throwing them back into their third major battle of the day. Otherwise Atlas is still queen even though she like every representation of those Transformers or Power Rangers episodes when they get stupidly ridiculous upgrades in their most desperate hour. Also it was kinda annoying that there was no explanation for her existence so I fixed that with some Altean metallurgy, Allura helping with the arm and the ship, and Shiro finding and giving the Atlas a balmera crystal to equal a giant robot. Still love her the most because she's a transition point for Shiro to have more responsible and a reward of sorts to be allowed to be where he likes to be the most, space, and in more control than he was before.


End file.
